The Edinburgh electric vehicle charging network has been criticised by enthusiastic members of the EV driving community even as Edinburgh Council celebrates network expansions.
This week council transport leaders tested out a newly operational charger in Edinburgh, and celebrated recent network expansions at Hermiston, Ingliston Park and Ride and on-street locations as a win.
However, two local EV drivers have slammed Edinburgh’s charging network and have said it has a long way to go before it catches up with other cities.
Tom Tallis, a carer and fire service charity volunteer from Musselburgh, says he will never go back to driving petrol vehicles again. However, he called Edinburgh’s network a “joke.”
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“My driving takes me anywhere and everywhere most days of the week. I live in a flat, so I rely on public charging only,” he said.
“I sometimes cover around 300 miles per week, and I’ve got almost every charger in Scotland stored by memory, or on an app, so I’m never short whilst on the run.”
“The charging network in Edinburgh is non-existent. The units that do exist are barely working, have huge queues during the day, and the only free rapid that exists is behind a fee paying car park at Fountain Park.”
He also criticised the poor layout of charging stations at the Hermiston Park & Ride. After “months of delays,” he said the BP Pulse units barely work and were positioned so that cars with charging ports anywhere other than the drivers side must park half in the EV bay and half in a regular bay.
Because of the layout, he said charging is “impossible” if the park and ride is busy.
Likewise, an anonymous EV driver from Fairmilehead, Edinburgh criticised the city's network of “unreliable” stations. The EV enthusiast has owned an EV for 3 years, and like Tom, he says he won’t return to petrol. However, he said Edinburgh has a long way to go before the EV network makes petrol-free cars accessible for everyone.
“I’ll be completely honest: the whole of Scotland is pretty horrendous if you’re solely relying on the public network,” he said.
“It’s always a gamble to pull into a station because a lot of the public stations are incredibly unreliable. A lot appear perfectly normal until you plug in and it won’t start to charge. Sometimes, it’ll work for the car ahead of you, and then it won’t work when you plug in.”
In total, 81 new chargers (141 charging bays) were installed and went live this summer across Edinburgh, including 41 rapid and fast chargers (72 bays).
The new charge points were funded by £2.3 million awarded through Transport Scotland’s Switched on Towns and Cities Challenge Fund. However, the EV driver from Fairmilehead claimed a lot of the new ports don’t benefit the entire EV community.
“A lot of the new ones that they have installed are 20 Kilowatt chargers. Only two types of vehicles can take full advantage of them. For all other vehicles, the 20KW are just like a slow or overnight charger. Unless you have one of those two types of vehicles, you can’t drive up, plug in for 30-40 minutes and have a decent charge.”
Earlier this year, the council also announced that it would charge most users 25 pence per kilowatt with additional costs depending on the type of charge required.
Anyone overstaying what one EV driver described as “unreasonably short time limits” would face £30 fines.
“Charging at stations has definitely impacted how many people use them. I rarely use stations in Edinburgh now because of the price. I fully charge in Glasgow now because I’m there almost every day for work,” the Fairmilehead driver said.
“All in all, it can be a very frustrating experience. Although I don’t regret owning and driving an EV, I definitely see where it wouldn’t be right for people with families and children. It’s probably not a great fit for families with kids in the back seat who don’t have the patience to go from station to station until they find one that works.”
Tom provided a litany of information about charging networks across the country. He said the situation for EV drivers in Glasgow is “a completely different story.”
“There’s many rapid chargers around Glasgow, including the city centre , and most of them are free, and always working too,” he said.
In Fife, Tom said the situation is just as bad as Edinburgh. However, he claimed Musselburgh offers far better options and is trialling lamppost neighbourhood slow chargers for residents
He described the Scottish Borders and the Scottish Highlands as having plenty of chargers that are usually working and reliable. Stirling, too, has a large charging capacity powered by a solar array.
Councillor Scott Arthur, Transport and Environment Convener, said: “Increasing the provision for greener technologies such as electric cars is a vital step in our wider plan for decarbonising transport in Edinburgh and for reaching our goal to become a net-zero carbon city by 2030, which is brought into sharp focus during Scotland’s Climate Week.”
Likewise, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport Michael Matheson added: "Phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, to help respond to the climate emergency, can only be achieved if drivers have the range of confidence that comes from readily available charging infrastructure. These latest charge points help provide that confidence to people who require EV charging in the capital."
However, Tom said Edinburgh has a “very, very long way to go if it wants to compete in any way for EV charging, and low emissions targets, something which doesn’t help convince anti-EV people who say “there’s nowhere to charge. Other cities are miles ahead.”
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