Lib Dems say more chargers needed for cars

A “massive expansion” in the number of car chargers is needed to help give Scots the confidence to switch to electric vehicles, say the Liberal Democrats.

Across Scotland there are more than 38,000 ultra-low emission vehicles on the road but only 1,856 public charging points, or one for every 20 vehicles, the party said.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said if the more than three million vehicles on the road north of the border are going to be switched to low emission versions, achieving the same ratio would need more than 16,000 new charging points to be built.

The party also said there were an average of 30 faults every day on the charging network.

Sanne DijkstraDownie, the party’s netzero spokesman and an Edinburgh councillor, said: “To give people confidence that they will always be able to charge electric cars when they need to, we need a massive expansion of our carcharging network with thousands of additional public charging stations in every urban and rural corner of Scotland.”

Ultra-low emission vehicles range from pure electric models to plug-in hybrids.

The UK is bringing in a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles in 2030.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said only London had more public chargers by population and that £50 million of taxpayers’ money had been put into the ChargePlace Scotland network, which has more than 2,200 points.

“High quality charging infrastructure is key to building confidence and helping people to make the switch to electric vehicles,” the spokesman said.