Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund awards are to provide over £7 million across Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, The Highland Council, Moray Council and Dundee City Council to encourage greater private investment in the electric vehicle (EV) charging network.
The funding will enable local authorities to work with the private sector to continue to grow Scotland’s public EV charging network. This is achieved through partnership working with the private sector to operate existing EV charge points and deliver new EV charge points. The benefits for the public will be the introduction of more new and more reliable EV charge points across Scotland – supporting the Scottish Government’s commitment to phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, reducing transport emissions and protecting the climate.
“I’m pleased that the Scottish Government is providing over £7 million in targeted support to attract in further private investment in our publicly accessible electric vehicle charging network,” said Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Transport.
“The scale of our ambition to decarbonise transport cannot be met alone and I expect that our commitment for approximately 24,000 additional public charge points by 2030 will largely be met by the private sector. This can only happen, however, if the conditions exist to support this investment – which is exactly what our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund is working to achieve and with a particular focus in our rural and island communities.
“We have over 5,600 currently and we are well on target to have 6,000 public EV charge points by 2026, through increasing private sector investment – with the private sector investing between £40 and £55 million in public EV charging in Scotland in 2024 alone.”
Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, The Highland Council and Moray Council have been collectively awarded £6,862,923 of the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund. Whereas Dundee City Council has been awarded £300,000. The lower funding figure reflects the fact that Dundee already benefits from a comprehensive network of public charging and is in keeping with policy intent of primarily investing in rural and island locations.
“ChargeUK’s members stand ready to deliver the Scottish Government’s vision of a just transition to electric vehicles, through investment in charging infrastructure at pace and scale. The first Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund awards are an important and welcome step in delivering the vision,” said Vicky Read, CEO of ChargeUK.
“Our members will invest over £6 billion in rolling out EV infrastructure before 2030 to provide affordable and convenient charging for all in every part of the UK.
“Key to achieving that aim is effective partnership with the UK’s governments and local authorities.
“This first tranche of funding is encouraging and we look forward to unlocking further support through this scheme to ensure motorists across Scotland are confident that EV charging infrastructure is not just there for them today but into the future too.”
