The Scottish government has said how it will support the introduction of around 24,000 extra public electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints by 2030 – a fourfold increase on the current total.
The Draft Implementation Plan sets down a series of recommendations and actions that will be open to consultation before a final document is published in summer next year.
Scotland is already outpacing the rest of the UK when it comes to public EV charging, says the paper, with the most rapid chargepoints per person than anywhere in the four nations, and more public chargepoints per head than anywhere except London. The country met its target of 6,000 public chargepoints earlier this year, two years ahead of a 2026 deadline. Around a third of these were added between June 2023 and October 2024.
However, the Holyrood government says the roll out must go “faster and further” if it is to meet its 30,000 chargepoint target by the end of the decade.
The paper says that the private sector will have to take the lead and that “options for addressing current barriers to private investment should be fully explored”.
Since 2011, the Scottish government claims to have invested over £65 million in public EV charging.
It adds that it is “essential to continue the transition away from a publicly funded delivery model to one that leverages public funding and existing infrastructure to attract private sector investment and continue to expand the public EV charging at pace and at scale to meet current and future needs”.
The paper also stresses the need to have chargepoints located throughout the country, especially in Scotland’s more remote locations, noting that the overall number of chargepoints is “not the only, nor necessarily the most important, measure”.
It adds that the Scottish government should “not simply rely on a single numerical target for the delivery of public EV charging but should instead work with partners to ensure Scotland has the right chargepoints in the right locations so that the public EV charging network works for everyone”.
