Thousands of complaints lodged by users of electric vehicle charging points

Members of the public report a fault with electric vehicle charging points almost every hour of the day, recent figures have revealed.

Between November 2021 and October 2022, there were 7,977 complaints lodged by users across Scotland, the equivalent of 21.8 per day.

The statistics were published following a parliamentary question by Scottish Conservative MSP Maurice Golden.

SNP transport minister Jenny Gilruth revealed the monthly list of faults compiled by ChargePlace Scotland following calls from members of the public. It showed hundreds of instances each month.

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Mr Golden said: “It’s clear, and commendable, that people across Scotland want to do their bit for the environment by using electric cars. But those who do so are having to report faults with an infrastructure that’s been appallingly served by this SNP-Green Government.

“There is absolutely no point in ministers pushing the importance of electric vehicles – and implementing policies to discourage the use of petrol and diesel cars – if the capacity to properly charge them isn’t there. And these figures almost certainly understate the extent of the problem, as many road users simply won’t have the time to report the faults they encounter.

“If the Scottish Government doesn’t take immediate action to improve this, the overall objective to clean up the country’s roads will be severely jeopardised.”

In her answer, Ms Gilruth said overall reliability across the ChargePlace Scotland network “is typically very good with the entire network up and running around 95 per cent of the time each month”.

She said: “Most faults on the network are short-lived and in the majority of cases require no physical intervention or a visit by an engineer.”