New Government pilot scheme to make electric vehicles more accessible

A new pilot scheme backed by the Scottish Government aims to make electric vehicles more accessible to households without traditional off-street parking.

The Cross Pavement Charging Grant pilot programme will fund the installation of charging solutions in East Lothian, Renfrewshire and Perth and Kinross.

Grants of up to £3,500 per household will be available for solutions such as pavement gulley technology or pop-up bollards.

Alison Wilkie had a cross-pavement charging channel installed outside her home in North Berwick in 2023.

She said: “We do not have off-street parking and we wanted to make use of the lower overnight tariffs offered by our electricity provider, which make it much cheaper to charge the car compared with the commercial on-street installations.

“We could have put some of our garden aside for off-street parking, but this is a shame for garden space and biodiversity when we have always parked on the street. We had sometimes run a cable under a mat over the pavement, but that was a hassle and posed a risk to pedestrians.

“Then we heard about the channel from East Lothian Council, who arranged it for us and put us in touch with the installers.

“The channel has made a huge difference – we can easily plug in our car whenever we want to, so long as no-one else is parked there. We have a pin code on our charger, so it’s secure and it’s much safer than using mats. We don’t really notice the channel as the installers made such a tidy job of it.”

The pilot is backed backed by £250,000 of Scottish Government funding and delivered by the Energy Saving Trust.

The results will feed into the development of national guidance on cross-pavement charging.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “I’m really pleased to launch this pilot scheme, another way in which we are supporting Scotland’s transition to electric vehicles, reducing carbon emissions and aligning with the Scottish Government’s priority to tackle the climate emergency.

“The fund will improve access to people without off-street parking, such as driveways, promoting accessibility to electric vehicles to people more likely to have limited public charging options.

“Innovation and investment are crucial to continuing to support a Just Transition towards electric vehicle use and I look forward to hearing about more households successfully making the switch.”

East Lothian has already been part of an EV pilot scheme in 2024 as the local authority worked with Hiyacar and Transport Scotland to enable employees to access a car club vehicle for business use.

The scheme was led by mileage claim data analysis, availability of charging infrastructure across East Lothian, and projected demand from the general public.

Councillor John McMillan, East Lothian council cabinet spokesman for Environment, Economic Development and Tourism, said: “East Lothian has an excellent track record in supporting the transition to an electric future and we were delighted to give our backing to a scheme which helps make it even easier to switch to EVs.

“For people who don’t have a driveway or another convenient place to plug in near their house, cable gullies offer an accessible option for charging their vehicle from home.

“The council has been piloting this safer method of charging from home for nearly a year and we’ve received some great feedback from residents who have taken part.”