New research carried out by the RAC foundation has revealed that almost half of Scotland’s electric vehicle charging units are going unused from month to month. With electric vehicle sales on the up and more charging units being installed EV drivers are being encouraged to make more use of the public network available to them.
In a study made possible by requesting data from Transport Scotland under the Freedom of Information Act, the RAC Foundation revealed that the ChargePlace Scotland Network is being underused.
Figures for August 2014 show that of the 482 units in the network, 217 (45%) were not plugged into at all during that month.
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said:
“The encouraging news is that electric car sales in the UK are at last showing signs of improvement, but we still have a charging network in Scotland that is running below capacity.
“Part of the reason for installing public charge points is to help drivers overcome their fear of range anxiety but this does not come cheap.
“Ultimately we hope our analysis will give an indication of where further money should be spent and where extra infrastructure might be needed.”
ChargePlace Scotland, which is part of the Charge Your Car umbrella, has publicly available points all over Scotland and many are free to use with a CYC membership. See all the points on Zap-Map Live.
Read the full report in a PDF here: http://www.racfoundation.org/assets/rac_foundation/content/downloadables/Scotland_EV_Network_Final_Makwana_Feb_2015.pdf
RAC Foundation
