Hansard

I congratulate Dave Thompson on securing the debate and on raising awareness of the uptake of electric vehicles and all necessary matters. As he described, he practises what he preaches by owning an electric vehicle.

I would not want people to think that Transport Scotland is slow to act. I have an update from officials on the matters that have been raised. I do not understand the full note, but I am sure that officials will be able to explain the technical details to Dave Thompson before his trip. I understand that one or two of the charging points that he mentioned have been fixed, that work has been commissioned in Shiel Bridge and is awaiting final testing, but that work at Broadford is delayed due to the wayleave agreement, although the aim is to commission that work by the end of April. I have no idea what that means, but I am sure that the official who is present will be able to explain it.

The Scottish Government absolutely supports increased uptake and use of electric vehicles as we move away from fossil-fuel-burning vehicles. That is the only way that we will make progress on our greener, cleaner country policy. Such transformation will be significant, so the Government will continue to support it in every way that we can—through the national transport strategy, through the chargeplace Scotland initiative and through individual packages of support for electric vehicles. Indeed, our overarching vision is of a completely decarbonised transport system, so we need to move towards electric vehicles for air quality, for the environment and for personal behaviour. We are supporting electric vehicles through individual initiatives such as the swtiched-on fleets scheme, which supports purchase of electric vehicles right across Scotland, including the Highland region specifically. We are also looking at what more we can do with incentives.

Hanzala Malik made a fair point about charging, which is certainly worth considering, as is enhancing the infrastructure, which can be done through a partnership approach across the public and private sectors. Showcasing of electric vehicles is necessary, which is why the exhibitions that have been referred to will be so important in demonstrating the benefits of electric vehicles.

We are making progress: there are now more than 2,000 electric vehicles on Scotland’s roads. In 2014, more than 800 electric cars were sold in Scotland using the United Kingdom Government’s plug-in car grant, which was more than in the previous three years combined. The 2015 sales figures have yet to be confirmed, but they will tell us that even more vehicles have been sold using the scheme between January and September. We are beginning to build up accelerated progress—pardon the pun—to deliver more electric vehicles. To respond to Kenny Gibson’s question, I say that of course the infrastructure has to be in place first so that the vehicles can operate and to provide confidence about availability. The main point of the debate is the availability of charging points. More is being done to increase the number of charging points and availability of the infrastructure because of increasing demand as more vehicles are purchased.

Domestic charging is also important. There have been more installations and demand has surpassed availability of funding in some of the support schemes for delivering home installations. That is something that I will look at closely as we go forward with transport delivery policies. I would also like big employers to look at their policies and initiatives on sustainable transport, so that they can increase the number of charging points with the public sector and increase their purchase and use of electric vehicles in their business.

I could list the areas that have benefited from grant schemes, but time does not allow it. However, I would like to say that in Dave Thompson’s constituency of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch alone we have installed nine rapid chargers, with a further five planned. Charging points are hosted and maintained by local authorities and by others: we appreciate those on-going partnerships in delivery of the network.

There is more to do, and we will continue to deliver charging points, in view of what is happening across networks in Europe. Scotland has made good progress, but we want to achieve much more. Scotland has gained a strong reputation based on the work that we have done around uptake of electric vehicles. That is why we will continue to provide leadership and resources to develop the chargeplace Scotland network to meet the needs of the growing electric vehicles market.

Of course, widespread electric vehicle adoption will require more than the Government doing something: it will require a partnership approach from the public and private sectors. However, there is a clear need for Government-led activity to deliver our transport strategy and our vision of a decarbonised road network through not just modal shift but use of certain types of vehicles—increasingly electric vehicles—because of emissions.

For all those reasons, I commend Dave Thompson for his work—his support and campaigning on the issue, and his encouragement of all MSPs to campaign in their areas and to raise awareness of the benefits of electric vehicles. That will lead to further investment and, for the Government’s part, we will continue to support the infrastructure and to provide direct incentives to support the cause.