At Holyrood, Scottish Conservative north-east MSP Liam Kerr raised concerns that cash-strapped councils in the north and north-east won’t be able to afford to pay for the upkeep of the chargers.

It comes as Highland Council revealed it had been stripped of Transport Scotland funding for repairing its chargers despite the number of electric vehicles more than doubling in the last year.

The local authority blames this among other factors for its decision to more than double the cost of its EV charging – from £12 to fill up to £28.

Liam Kerr raised concerns that cash-strapped councils won’t be able to afford to pay for the upkeep of chargers.

In a question to environment minister Màiri McAllan, Mr Kerr raised that concerns that other councils will follow this tariff increase due to a lack of Scottish Government cash to repair and maintain chargers.

Previously obtained figures from Mr Kerr, the shadow secretary for net zero, energy and transport, showed almost 8,000 electric vehicle charger faults were reported across Scotland in the last year.

And he believes this number will continue to rise due to funding being axed for their upkeep.

Mr Kerr said: “The Scottish Government is pulling the plug on electric vehicle owners by stripping councils of this subsidy which they rely on to maintain and repair charging points.

“What message does this send to people looking to make the switch to electric when a high number of public charging points in the north-east are continually broken yet there’s no money to actually repair them.

“Owning an electric vehicle must be as convenient as owning a traditionally powered vehicle but the charging facilities must be working for this to happen. I fear that these constant cuts from the Scottish Government to our electric vehicle network will ultimately contribute to substantial tariff rises in the north-east – something we have already seen in areas such as the Highlands.”

Fears electric vehicle chargers in north-east will deteriorate