Scottish Government sets out plan for 24,000 more EV chargers by 2030

Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network is set to quadruple in size by 2030 under new plans outlined by the Scottish Government.

The government has published its Draft Implementation Plan, which sets out 15 action points to help support the delivery of approximately 24,000 extra public EV charge points by 2030.

It says the strategy will help ensure greater range confidence, encouraging more motorists to go electric and help achieve the Scottish Government ambition of ‘phasing out the need for’ new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030.

According to Zapmap, Scotland had 6,007 public charge points at the end of October – meeting a government-set target two years ahead of schedule, and representing a 49% increase since JUne 2023.

Initially the country’s charger roll-out was delivered through the Scottish Government-backed Chargeplace Scotland scheme. However, private sector investment is increasingly leading the network expansion and the draft plan sees private operators as central to delivery of the target.

Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop said: “Transport remains the largest cause of greenhouse gas emissions and EVs enable drivers to take climate action and cut harmful emissions. We need to ensure that people from all parts of Scotland can benefit from this switch to EVs, so that no one and no part of the country is left behind.”

“In October 2024, Scotland met its target for 6,000 public EV charge points two years ahead of the 2026 deadline. That target was achieved through a combination of public funding and increasing private sector investment. We now need to go faster and further to achieve our ambitions. Public money cannot and should not support this infrastructure alone.

“We have already seen significant growth in the level of private sector investment in the public charging infrastructure This draft plan outlines how the private sector will take on a leading role.”

Since 2011, the Scottish Government has invested over £65 million in public EV charging and is supporting further expansion through its £30m EV Infrastructure Fund for local authorities. The Scottish Futures Trust estimates that the private sector invested between £25m and £35m in 2023 and is expected to have invested between £40m and £55m by the end of 2024.

As a result, Department of Transport figures show that, on a per head of population basis, Scotland has more public EV charge points than any other part of the UK, except London and more rapid public EV charge points than any other part of the UK.
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Vicky Read, CEO of ChargeUK said: “ChargeUK is committed to making EV charging as convenient and affordable as possible. The Transport for Scotland implementation plan acknowledges that for the rollout to go further and faster, we need the support of DNOs and local authorities and we are looking forward to working with the Scottish Government to deliver this.

“To encourage and support more investment into public charge points, coordination between CPOs, DNOs and all forms of government is vital .”