The use of Scottish electric vehicle (EV) charging points has doubled in the last year following a 74% increase in the number of licenced EVs in the country according to new figures published by the RAC Foundation.
In August 2016 a total of 26,119 charging sessions took place on the ChargePlace Scotland network, marking an increase of 102% from the same month the previous year and a rise of 4,000% compared to August 2013.
The data only includes commercial and publically accessible charge point usage, with actual charging sessions likely to be much higher when taking into account domestic charge point usage.
At the end of August 2016, 870 charge points with a total of 1,772 connectors were connected on the ChargePlace network – a rise of 25% and 29% respectively from the previous year. A quarter of these connectors (456) were found to be rapid chargers, up 95% from the previous year, which were the most widely used on the network at 42% of all charging sessions
Meanwhile a number of charge points remained underutilised, with 25% of charge points not used at all during August 2016.
According to Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, this could reflect the need for better planning of where to place charge points on the network, and which types of charger to use.
“They say that when it comes to buying a house location, location, location is everything. So it goes with electric charge points. Facilities need to be in places where people will use them. But there’s something more.
“The evidence suggests that it is rapid chargers that are getting a disproportionate amount of use, which bears out the view that improving the convenience and speed of ‘filling’ up with electricity is mission critical to the wider take-up of these vehicles,” he said.
The penetration of EVs within Scotland remains proportionally low compared to the rest of the UK, particularly England where over 60,000 vehicles eligible to receive the plug-in car and van grant were registers compared to Scotland’s 3,575.
However, this figure has grown significantly within a short period of time, with the current number of EVs representing almost a nine fold increase (888%) since the end of June 2013.
