Scottish Cities Alliance

More and more people are choosing to travel across our beautiful country in eco-friendly electric vehicles (EV). So it’s good news that Scotland’s EV charging network is being super-charged thanks to multi-million pound investments.

Scotland has set a target to become net zero by 2045 – five years ahead of the rest of the UK. EVs can play a key role in reaching this ambitious goal and there are a number of innovative projects happening to make sure EV drivers can travel between Scottish cities, safe in the knowledge they can easily access a reliable public charging network.

Energy company ScottishPower has announced plans to work with tourist attractions across the country to create a new “electric tourist trail” of public charge points. Glasgow Science Centre is one of the first spots to join the charging network and recently reached a major milestone as its visitors charged up more than 25,000 EV miles – the equivalent to a journey around the world.

This project is part of ScottishPower’s goal to provide two million EV charging points to meet Scotland’s future transport needs. Andrew Mouat, Head of Smart Mobility at ScottishPower, said:

Charging an electric car is becoming part of everyday life for many people and that’s great for the planet.

Building a new electric tourist trail of public charge points should make this process even easier. We need to continue expanding our network to cater for the huge number of people switching to more sustainable electric vehicles and are here to support suitable businesses that want to make the switch and join us.

The team from ChargePlace Scotland – Scotland’s national EV charging network – put the country’s charging infrastructure to the test recently with a cross-country, 600-mile adventure over two days in August.

The trip, dubbed the EV Rally of Scotland, saw a variety of electric vans and cars set off from the Arnold Clark Innovation Centre in Glasgow. Their journey took them around the country, including charging stops in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness, before arriving back in Glasgow.

EV drivers in Aberdeen have also received a significant boost after the city was revealed as the first Scottish location for an ultra-fast EV charging hub that can power up vehicles in as little as 20 minutes. One of the world’s biggest EV infrastructure firms – Allego – has chosen the Granite City to build six ultra-fast charge points, part of a £100 million UK investment by the company over the next five years.

EV drivers in Dundee will also soon be making use of a new ultra-rapid charging hub, said to be Scotland’s most powerful to date. The first of two planned hubs being installed in the city by SSE Energy Solutions will have 24 ultra-rapid charging bays.  Eight of the bays will be powered by 360kW charge units – believed to be a first for Scotland – that can add up to 60 miles of range in just three minutes. The second hub is awaiting planning permission.

SSE plans to build 500 ultra-rapid EV charging hubs – powered by renewable energy – in the UK and Ireland by 2030 with several sites already under construction. The first hub, at Castlebank in Glasgow, opened in September 2022.

Kevin Welstead, EV sector director at SSE Energy Solutions, said:

With EV sales growing exponentially they are going to take up a significant proportion of our country’s total electricity demand over the coming years and at SSE we are investing to respond to that need.