Leading the way in move to electricity

North Lanarkshire is at the forefront of the switch from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles.

There are more EV (electric vehicle) charging points in the local authority area than any other in Scotland bar one.

According to new figures f rom the Department f or Transport, Nor t h Lanarkshire is second only to Highlands in the number of publicly accessible charging points and is leading the way in the country’s switch to the green motoring revolution.

Scotland has just under 750 rapid charging devices, with 74 of them in North Lanarkshire – the Highlands tops the list with a total of 87, but eight local authority regions are still in single figures.

The data also shows that Scotland has the highest ratio nationally in the UK of publicly accessible rapid charging points for electric vehicles with 13.6 devices per 100,000 residents, up from 12.9 in January.

The average across all UK regions is 8.2 devices per 100,000 people.

And after London, with 111 charging devices per 100,000 residents, Scotland had the best accessibility to public (non-rapid) charging points with 54 for every 100,000. The national average is 45 devices per 100,000.

The Wishaw Press revealed earlier this year that the number of electric vehicles registered by residents in North Lanarkshire had more than doubled in the space of a year.

Between J uly and September 2021 t he number of electric vehicles (EVs) registered in the local authority area had risen 104 per cent on the same period in 2020 – a higher percentage rise than anywhere else in Scotland.

The number of EVs registered to residents in the ML2 postcode area which covers Wishaw and surrounding villages rose from 40 to 86 from the third quarter of 2020 to the same quarter in 2021 – a rise of 115 per cent.

In Motherwell’s ML1 postcode the numbers went up from 99 to 211, that’s a rise of over 113 per cent, and in the ML7 area covering Shotts, Harthill and Allanton ownership went up from 19 to 40 vehicles over the period, that’s over 110 per cent.

North Lana r k s h i r e

Council staff are being given the opportunity to obtain electric vehicles at a cheaper cost via a salary sacrifice scheme, and the local authority introduced Scotland’s first electrically powered bin lorry in 2020.

Community organisations such as Getting Better Together in Shotts have also introduced EVs.

The government is targeting the phase out of sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

While EV uptake figures are on the rise, Greg Wilson, f ounder of i nsurance comparison website quotezone.co.uk, believes the installation of charging infrastructure needs to be accelerated.

He told us: “It’s encouraging that the rate of charging installs for electric vehicles is on the rise, but with only eight years left on the clock before drivers can no longer purchase petrol or diesel vehicles, this increase would need to gather pace across Scotland.

“While recent electric car sales have been impressive, charging facilities are uneven throughout Scotland which could put the brakes on customers’ current enthusiasm for greener motoring.”