Electric vehicle drivers left 'high and dry' as SNP-backed scheme sees decline in charging points

Concerns have been raised that electric vehicle drivers risk being “left high and dry” by a decline in the Scottish government’s own charging point scheme across the country. New figures show that there are 1,821 ChargePlace Scotland vehicle chargers scattered around Scotland, with figures for three years ago showing there were 2,522 of the plugs available as part of the government-backed scheme. The statistics reveal a drop of more than a quarter of the Scottish government-run charging infrastructure in the space of three years as SNP ministers look to the private sector to ramp up infrastructure.

But Scottish government officials have argued that the figures “misrepresent the full picture of charging infrastructure across Scotland”. In this year’s budget, the Scottish government committed £17.8m of funding to support the continued uptake of electric vehicles and the expansion of charging infrastructure - including targeted support for rural and island communities. ChargePlace Scotland is owned and developed by the Scottish government and is funded in partnership through a public grant from local authorities and other organisations.

Scottish Conservative energy spokesman, Liam Kerr, said: “The Scottish government has made repeated pledges to ramp up charging infrastructure to match their ideological demands for people to switch to electric vehicles. “But in the past three years the numbers of chargers they provide have plummeted. “It’s no wonder so many people have grave reservations about electric vehicles when the charging network could leave them high and dry.”

He added: “There’s nothing wrong with ministers promoting the use of electric vehicles – but they’ve got to back that up with proper investment on the ground. “Otherwise, the public will rightly interpret the SNP’s green rhetoric as nothing but a gimmick.” The Scottish government set out a route map for enabling the delivery of around 24,000 additional public charge points by 2030 - largely funded and delivered by the private sector, with bigger investment needed as the technology grows in popularity in the coming years.

Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb, which opened its Aberdeen EV charger manufacturing hub this month, has called on the Chancellor to end a so-called £200 “pavement tax” in today’s UK Budget. He said: “Drivers parking on-street and relying on public EV charging are treated differently by the tax system. If you have a driveway, you can charge your car at home and the electricity is now subject to 0 per cent VAT. If you live in a flat or terraced house and rely on a public charger near your home, you pay 20 per cent.

“For a typical EV driver reliant on public charging, that VAT difference amounts to around £200 a year. It is a ‘pavement tax’ that penalises people simply because they do not have somewhere to plug in at home. “That is why we are asking the Chancellor to use the Budget to end the driveway divide and to cut VAT on near-home public charging to the same rate as home charging. “ A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: “These figures are misleading, and deliberately misrepresent the full picture of charging infrastructure across Scotland.

“ChargePlace Scotland makes up less than 33 per cent of the public charging network in Scotland and is therefore not representative of the public EV charging provision in Scotland as a whole. “Scotland has one of the most comprehensive public EV charging networks in the UK, with over 13,000 public charge points, and more rapid and ultra rapid chargers (over 3,400) than almost any other part of the UK.”