Plans are being developed to help secure more than 500 new public electric vehicle charge points in Edinburgh.
A report to Transport and Environment Committee on Thursday (2 March) outlined work between the Council and Scottish Futures Trust to develop a business case to determine future financing and delivery models for expanding the city’s charging infrastructure.
It is anticipated this will support the procurement of a commercial charge point operating partner to deliver most of the charge points while sharing any profits, as well as helping the Council to unlock access to funding to install more chargers. Forecasting work has concluded that around 500 additional chargers would be needed to achieve a comprehensive network of public charging points.
The update to committee included a new enforcement and tariff regime agreed as part of the budget setting process for 2023/24, to ensure that tariffs cover recent increases to the cost of electricity. Changes have also been made to increase maximum stay periods for rapid chargers and to remove overnight enforcement for fast chargers, in response to feedback from residents.
Councillor Scott Arthur, Transport and Environment Convener, said:
The transition to more sustainable transport like electric vehicles is essential to our net zero 2030 goals, alongside initiatives to encourage travel by foot, wheel, bike or public transport.
Our ambitious plans to significantly increase the number of publicly available charge points across the city, on top of the network of chargers we installed last year, will support even more people to make the switch.
We must ensure that our tariffs are set so that we can continue providing the service and the new structure does that. The review also responds to customer feedback with changes to enforcement and some maximum stay periods, which will make it easier to use the chargers.
Changes to tariffs and enforcement
- Standard (7kW) chargers: Cost per kWh will increase from 25p to 45p.
- Fast (22kW) chargers: Cost per kWh will increase from 30p to 50p; the three-hour maximum stay period will not be enforced overnight (between 11pm and 8am).
- Rapid (50kW) chargers: Cost per kWh will increase from 35p to 55p; the maximum stay period will increase from 30 minutes to one hour.
Officers are currently developing a financial model which will be used to inform tariff setting from 2024/25 onwards.
In September, the Council completed the installation of 81 on-street charge points, creating an additional 141 EV charging bays across the city. Thanks to a successful bid for funding through the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), provided by the UK Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the Energy Saving Trust (EST), a further 22 public charge points in residential areas, creating 44 charging bays, are currently being installed.
Funding secured through the Switched on Towns and Cities Challenge Fund, provided by Transport Scotland, has also allowed the delivery of 37 charge points, creating 74 charging bays, for the exclusive use of the Council’s Car Club partner, currently Enterprise Car Club. These are expected to be in place by spring 2023.
You can find out about electric vehicle charging in Edinburgh on the Council website.