ELECTRIC vehicle chargers in the Highlands are being used as little as six times per year, prompting concerns from an MSP over the number of broken or inactive devices across the region.
Information released by Highland Council show the usage of chargers in 2023 varied greatly depending on the location.
The least used charging point was situated at Inverness Campus, which only registered six sessions for the whole of the year, totalling an output of under 70 kWh.
Meanwhile, a hub at Bayfield car park in Portree registered just eight sessions while a charger located at Dornoch South community car park was only used 19 times.
Golspie’s charging point located at Drummuie was used only 44 times throughout 2023.
In contrast, a charger at Aviemore’s public toilets car park was used 2,667 times, accumulating an output of more than 51,600 kWh while Fort William’s charger situated at An Aird Car and Coach Park was in use on 2,368 occasions.
Scottish Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, Tim Eagle, who owns an electric vehicle, said: “These eye-opening statistics lay bare the fact that far too many electric vehicle chargers are broken or inaccessible to people in the Highlands.
“Providing reliable and accessible on-street charging is fundamental in our mission to decarbonise transport and achieve our net zero targets.
“But many people living in rural areas are still not confident enough to buy an electric vehicle due to the lack of charging points, while the ones that are in place are often broken as these figures suggest.
“Progress on delivering more, reliable chargers is going at a snail’s pace and that is all too typical of the SNP government’s woeful record on environmental targets.
“People in remote and rural areas should not be penalised for where they live but it’s clear that less priority is being given to transport infrastructure in areas such as the Highlands which is currently unfit for purpose.
“If the Scottish Government is serious about getting people to make the switch then they need to start properly investing in the Highland electric vehicle charging network.”
