Charge it up Scotland
Kaitlin Dryburgh
I was left baffled after reading a Guardian article about the UK’s electric car charging network and the “charging deserts” scattered through-out. One of the most attention-grabbing statement was that outside of London Scotland has the best charging network. Although it was clear that London had by far the most households with a public charger within a five minute walk, all areas in Scotland were next, with Edinburgh and the Lothians following with just over 30% and lowest being Aberdeen and North-East with around 25%.
In comparison, North-east Derbyshire and Redditch in the West Midlands fell below 20%. There are many areas where if you don’t have a home-charger and park your car on the street you’re going to run into problems. Different authorities have had different approaches to chargers and as such not every area provides the same coverage.
In-fact the coverage is so unjust there are more EV charge points in the London Borough of Westminster than in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Glasgow, Southampton, Portsmouth and Newcastle combined.
Overall I found this article puzzling. The thing is I live in Edinburgh, don’t have a driveway or a place to install a charger, and am part of a household with an electric car. We are at the mercy of public chargers. So reading that I live in the second best spot in the UK was surprising. I am unfortunately not one of the households that live within a five minute walk, my nearest one is 20 minutes away. Which although is frustrating is something we knew before the car was purchased, so I can’t really complain, but of course I do (I can’t help myself).
Overall, my experience of the charging network anywhere in the UK is not good. It’s a headache, it constantly has me downloading apps, it’s fickle, and unreliable. It’s just about manageable, but it could be made so much easier.
Our nearest charger is via ChargePlace Scotland, Scotland’s national network. Often placed in more residential areas, they’re very cost effective but slow. However, all in all they’re great if you’re parking your car up and have somewhere else to go- that is if they work. Having an electric car and no home charger means there’s a bit more planning involved, and that’s okay. However, the number of times a ChargePlace Scotland charge point is broken, begs belief. It’s an unreliable network. Now we’re one electric car, one household, we could just have incredibly bad luck, but that isn’t the case. Examining ChargePlace Scotland’s data on “tickets” which refers to any issue, query or fault raised in the month specific to a charger this is an on-going problem through-out Scotland. Although this can cover queries such as how-to advice and remote activation, there is a higher chance that it refers to a fault. So in Argyll and Bute there are 74 chargers but there was 120 tickets in July, in Fife there are 116 chargers and last month they had 114 tickets. The Orkney Islands weren’t too bad they only had nine tickets for 34 chargers. Yet almost every area in Scotland had a vast amount of “tickets”.
It's extremely unfortunate because an electric car should not be an off-putting prospect. First off no matter what is said about Lithium batters, even though their extraction can be bad for the environment and communities, overall running an electric car is much better for the environment in comparison to an internal combustion engine. As the advancement in lithium battery recycling advances the benefits of owning an electric car will also increase. As of right now one battery lasts for approximately ten years but the lithium can be recycled with just over 90% efficiency. In theory this could mean that 100 batteries today will still be able to make one battery in about 450 years. I would also expect there to be further advancements along the way.
Secondly charging an electric car is cheaper than fuel, in the majority of cases, although the upfront costs can be more expensive.
We’re being pushed in the direction of electric cars which is great but where is the integrated effort to establish a reliable national network of chargers. For example a trip to St Andrews saw one ChargePlace Scotland charger service an extremely central and large carpark, and one of the outlets was broken. So where do you turn to, the private charger at a supermarket.
The charging network has a plethora of private companies muscling their way in, which means the amount of apps you need to download only increase more and more. A long weekend to Northumberland saw us download no more than four new apps. Not having access to a local authority run charger means you will most likely be paying higher prices, some being so expensive diesel starts to look like a saving.
But the charging network is growing and although there has been a pull back in some initiatives surrounding electric cars, there is Government investment. But in true Scottish government fashion it’s public money for private investment. Just over a month ago Fiona Hyslop Cabinet Secretary for Transport announced a £7 million investment in the charging network in Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council, The Highland Council, Moray Council and Dundee City Council to encourage greater private investment in electric car charging network.
Public owned charging networks are key. Yes ChargePlace Scotland isn’t the most functional but let’s not give up on it. We’re on the cusp of going electric let’s do not make the mistake of giving all the control over to private companies. Although home charging is becoming ever more popular, and new estates being required to build them, for those who have no choice but to park on the street there must be an accessible network and action to deliver it.
Looking towards Norway which is the electric car capital of the world, they’ve only managed to get to that title through a strong electric charging infrastructure and incentives. Norway is lightyears ahead of Scotland and the UK, so we should learn from them. Invest in the chargers and the electric cars will come, setting legislation banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars so early on is perhaps not a very useful approach (Norway are just bringing this in next year and already over 80% of their car sales are electric. While the UK sits at around 17%). Their network is expansive and government investment has been steady and coordinated. But they’ve also prioritised customer service and useability, no need for a gazillion apps. The Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association provides all members with a charging chip which allows them to use all chargers with via one route and one account.