Slow charge for Highland home electric car grants
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Scottish uptake for electric car home charging grants has fallen behind English regions, according to figures from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles.
The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme’s demand across Scotland amounted to 410 grants per 100,000 homes last year, lower than any rate in England barring London.
"It was not all bad news though," said Greg Wilson, of Quotezone.co.uk, with almost 3,000 Scottish electric vehicle owners taking advantage of the scheme in 2020, a 45% increase on 2019, and the highest number since the scheme was launched in 2014."
Since 2014 Edinburgh has installed the most devices, at 1001.
The Highlands is seventh lowest out of the 32 for devices installed by local authorities in Scotland.
"The lower registering authorities are very rural like Moray and The Shetlands," say Quotezone.
The average number of devices installed is 317 by local authority.
"In total since 2014, £166,380 was given in grants in the Highlands. £40,900 was invested in 2020, which is the highest, beating £33,500 in 2019.
"In total 332 home charging devices have been installed with grants, the best year is 2020, with 101. The next best is 67 in 2019."
The EVHS provides 75% of the cost of installing electric vehicle charging devices at domestic properties.
The figures come hot on the heels of last week’s news, showing that in the UK new electric vehicle registrations rocketed in 2020, hitting 87% growth for alternative fuel vehicles.
Total vehicle registrations dropped 27% during 2020, with diesel vehicles being particularly badly hit, down 51%.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in November that wholly powered petrol and diesel cars will no longer be sold in the UK from 2030 as part of the ‘green industrial revolution’ to tackle climate change.
The government plans to ‘invest more than £2.8 billion in electric vehicles, lacing the land with charging points’.
Mr Wilson added: “Easy access to recharging points is crucial to meeting the government’s ambitious targets for electric vehicle use, but there is much work to do to meet these government plans. Research suggests that an investment of £16.7bn is needed on the public charging infrastructure alone – excluding local grid network updates.
“While grant funding take-up for charging devices shot up last year, it will need to increase even more in order to ensure that more than two million new vehicles sold each year can access electric charging points as the 2030 deadline draws closer.
“Scottish electric vehicle showrooms and car owners might be disappointed with the latest figures but we have to note local factors such as the region’s rural character, the proportion of tenancy properties and access to off-street parking could all affect the practicalities of going green.”
