Meeting of the Parliament 08 January 2019
In 2017, we announced our commitment to phase out the need for petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032. Since then, we have seen huge shifts in the electric vehicle market alongside new commitments to decarbonising transport from within the automotive industry and by the international community. For example, the number of EV models available is set to jump from 155 at the end of 2017 to 289 by 2022, car manufacturers such as Nissan and Volvo anticipate that 50 per cent of all their sales will be of EVs by 2025 and countries such as India, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland are proposing to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
The United Kingdom Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee recommended that the UK Government bring its ambitions for ultra-low-emission vehicles in line with those of Scotland.
Once again, we have shown that this Administration’s leadership on climate change and low-carbon technology is giving Scotland the competitive and comparative advantages that are needed to respond to today’s global challenges and opportunities.
Our commitment was also an important step in creating certainty for business during a period of unprecedented uncertainty and change. The Scottish Government’s climate change targets, energy strategy targets and commitment to remove the need for new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2032 all provide companies with a clear direction of travel. Those measures show Scotland’s commitment to pioneering a low-carbon future and, as a result, they mark out Scotland as a centre for low-carbon investment.
What progress are we making on our 2032 commitment? I am pleased to say that we are fast approaching the installation of our 1,000th charging point on the chargeplace Scotland network. That is an important milestone—it means that the average distance from any given location to the nearest public charging point is just 2.78 miles in Scotland; that is the lowest in Great Britain, where the average is 4.09 miles. That reflects our commitment to bringing robust, reliable electric vehicle charging to people and places across Scotland.
We are providing more funding than ever before to expand the number of low-emission vehicles on our roads through our switched on fleets initiative and the low-carbon transport loan.
The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that 4.6 per cent of newly registered cars in Scotland in 2018 were low carbon. There has also been a 46 per cent growth in registrations of ultra-low-emission cars in Scotland over the past year, which is 13 percentage points higher than the rest of the UK.