Orkney is the best place in Scotland to own an electric car, a study has found.
It has the highest number of electric car charging points with 40 serving a population of 22,400 people. It means Orkney offers a ratio of 179 charging berths per 100,000 people, significantly higher than Stirling in second place with 127 per 100,000, according to analysis by CarGuide.co.uk. East Lothian was ranked third with 119 per 100,000 with the Outer Hebrides in fourth with 106 and Argyll and Bute fifth with 101.
According to the study, the worst area to own an electric vehicle was East Dunbartonshire, with 25 public charging stations available to 108,750 people, amounting to a national low of 23 accessible points per 100,000.
East Renfrewshire was found to be the second-worst Scottish area with a population of 96,060 and 24 charging points across the council area, equating to 25 per 100,000.
West Lothian came third-worst with 25.6 publicly accessible chargers while Edinburgh and Glasgow came seventh and eighth-worst with 33.7 and 37.8 chargers per 100,000 respectively. The two cities have been at the forefront of efforts to reduce reliance on private vehicles with both councils introducing plans to create car-free centres and raise use of public transport.
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Olli Astley, the founder of the CarGuide.co.uk, which provides used car checks, said while it believed that “motorists getting into electric vehicles is the best way forward due to the benefits to the environment, the UK’s charging infrastructure still has a way to go”.
In January, the Scottish government committed to a £60 million plan to double the number of public charging points across Scotland over the next four years. The UK government has previously outlined plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by the end of the decade, with Transport Scotland predicting there will be between 500,000 and one million electric vehicles on Scotland’s roads by the end of the decade.
