Question reference: S6W-15202
- Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 20 February 2023
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 6 March 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made towards achieving its commitment to "work with the private sector to deliver £60 million of public and private investment to double the size of the public charging network to at least 6,000 electric vehicle charging points over the next 4 years", as announced in its Programme for Government 2022-23.
Answer
The Scottish Government has invested over £65 million in the ChargePlace Scotland Network that now has over 2,400 publicly available electric vehicle charge points, meaning that Scotland already has by far the greatest number of charge points per head of population than any other part of the UK outside of London. Last year the Scottish Government announced the £60 million Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund that aims to draw commercial investment in the public charging network across all parts of Scotland. Transport Scotland has already provided funding to Scotland’s local authorities to help them to work together to establish electric vehicle charging strategies and infrastructure expansion plans. These plans are identifying local and regional charge point needs, the investment requirements, as well as the best approaches to delivering collaborative investments with commercial charge point operators. A series of projects and investments will be announced over the course of this year.