Hello and welcome back to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.
Top story in today’s edition… I can reveal that Scotland’s national charging network is expected to soon break up with the brand possibly being discontinued.
Elsewhere further below… rules of origin, motorway targets, and Layer Cake.
As ever, if you have any thoughts or comments, please do get in touch. My contact details are here or simply reply to this email.
Revealed: ChargePlace Scotland due to break up
Headline: Scotland’s national EV charging network, ChargePlace Scotland, is set to be broken up and discontinued potentially as soon as Summer this year, according to several well-placed industry sources and comments from Scotland’s transport agency provided to The Fast Charge.
Background: Launched in 2010, ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) was set up by the devolved government to drive forward the growth of the country’s infrastructure. CPS is presently the fifth biggest charging network in the UK, according to Zap-Map, and operates more than 2,500 chargers – 600 of these are rapid devices – representing about 6% of the market in the UK, and about two-thirds of all chargers in Scotland.
Why the change? A combination of an ever-growing population of EV drivers and an increasing need to keep investing in the charging network, the Scottish Government has concluded that it is “unsustainable” for the public sector to continue leading CPS alone. The result will see the network break up and much of Scotland’s EV infrastructure managed by the private sector in the future.
When? CPS is currently being operated by SWARCO, a private company, that won a two-year contract with Transport Scotland in July 2021. This is due to end this Summer, though Transport Scotland said they had the option to run it until mid-2025. Sources told me no firm decision has been made yet, though some organisations with chargers managed by CPS are keen to go solo.
The impact: The majority of Scotland’s 32 local authorities will remove their chargers from the national network and manage the devices themselves. This will likely mean authorities searching for new partnerships with private companies to operate infrastructure on their behalf. Meanwhile, other chargers on CPS will likely also end up being run privately or under different brands. However, in one mooted scenario, some chargers might remain being supported by CPS ‘on the back-end’. This would be for owners with very few devices, for example, a community centre with two chargers.
To note: CPS doesn’t own any of the actual chargers on its network, it acts as an operator with responsibility for monitoring performance, providing access for drivers, and dealing with issues on the network. The physical chargers are owned by about 450 hosts. These owners are local authorities, public bodies, charities, and businesses that received grants from the Scottish Government to install chargers for public use.
Government response: A Transport Scotland spokesperson said, “Thanks to our early development of the ChargePlace Scotland Network, Scotland now has the greatest number of charge points per head of population than any other region of the UK. However, to meet our climate change targets, the pace and scale of investment in the public network will need to increase over the coming years and it will be unsustainable for the public sector to deliver this alone.”
The spokesperson added the Scottish Government’s EV Infrastructure Fund, announced in 2022, was aiming to leverage £60m of public and private investment to double the size of the network to 6,000 charge points by 2026. “The ChargePlace Scotland network provides a strong foundation to support this and will be an integral part of a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector.”
On timing… Transport Scotland said, “The current ChargePlace Scotland contract has the option to run until mid-2025, and we will continue to evaluate the best long-term approach for managing a seamless transition to the right charging mix to meet our vision for the future of public EV charging.” It's anticipated that Transport Scotland will see out the contract in full though a decision is yet to be made.
Industry response: Neil Swanson, Director of the EV Association for Scotland, said the group, “looks forward to seeing the evolution of ChargePlace Scotland, as many of the individual charge point owners develop public/private strategies under the Scottish Governments’ EV Infrastructure Fund. There continues to be challenges ahead meeting the need for EV travel across rural and urban Scotland, and we expect to see innovative solutions to meet the particular needs of each community.”
EVA Scotland added: “The ChargePlace Scotland brand has been a key part of decarbonising transport in Scotland, and it would be good to see some aspect of it retained, possibly as an eMobility Service Provider offering one account with roaming to allow drivers simple access for every charge.”
Next steps: Perhaps this moment was inevitable, though with net zero policies and EVs continually taking a beating, the break up of such a prominent national network is a risky move. Hopefully, though, opening out to the private sector will bring new investment as desired. Likewise, charger roaming is also expected to make interacting with Scotland’s network simple even without an organisation like CPS co-ordinating.
Latest EV news…
BIG STORY: Stellantis – which owns car brands like Vauxhall, Citroen, and Peugeot – warned it may have to close a factory due to ‘rules of origin’ changes making it potentially uncompetitive. As a reminder, from 2024, as part of the post-Brexit trading agreement, EVs traded between the UK and EU will need to have 45% of their parts sourced from either region or face a 10% tariff. In the days that have followed other carmakers and industry voices have called for a delay (most likely 2027). However, the challenge is, that depends on the EU and UK both agreeing and, at the moment, if the deal were to stay in place this may work better in the EU’s favour. The FT has a good write-up (paywall).
In response, last Thursday Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said to car manufacturers on battery production, “We are absolutely committed to making sure the UK is able to source onshore EV batteries that we need.” This came hot on the heels of the Treasury also, allegedly, offering Jaguar Land Rover’s owners, Tata, £500m to build a gigafactory in the UK – after months where Tata were pushing the government and suggesting they may pick Spain. Read more.
Alternate view: Speaking of the above, there was a column in The Spectator last week by Matthew Lynn that highlighted the rule of origin debate. Lynn concluded that, given the strength of China and others, should the UK just recognise “we are not going to be big players in the market for battery-powered cars” and instead focus on the industries where we have greater strength, like life sciences or finance. Read more (possible paywall).
OFF TARGET: The government may miss its objective of having six or more rapid or ultra-rapid chargers at every motorway service by the end of 2023, according to new research by RAC. Read more.
HAZARD SIGN: The National Federation of the Blind UK, Living Streets and Guide Dogs have branded as ‘ludicrous’ and ‘unsafe’ drivers who lay EV cables across the pavement from their homes. Read more.
PATH AHEAD: Speaking of pavements, one solution for those without off-street parking is to cut a gully through the pavement’s in-front of homes. There are a growing number of products popping up to deliver this, the OG in this racket is ‘Gul-e’, which was designed by Oxford Council’s social enterprise company, ODS. Last week the firm announced they would be delivering Gul-e for a housing developer in Bristol. Read more.
MAJOR ROAD: National Highways, which operates 4,500 miles of the UK’s road network, is planning to install 2,500 chargers within a five-year period to 2030 – presumably rapid. Read more.
TIME PENALTY: EV drivers that have appealed fines in Edinburgh for overstaying in charging spaces have been successful in 50% of cases over the past year, according to a new FOI. Read more.
EXCELLENT, ANGELO: The Scottish manufacturer Munro launched its second electric 4x4 over the weekend. It’s called the MK_1 Pick-Up – a rather simple, dull name that is hopefully evidence that the team was so focussed on building a good vehicle they didn’t bother with any marketing guff. Though, its launch colour is yellow, a move away from the previous black metallic Bond villain aesthetic. It also looks distinctly like the Range Rover from the film Layer Cake. It’s brilliant. Learn more.
NEW DEAL: Ford has secured new deals with lithium suppliers after it revealed yesterday that its costs were $7bn more than competitors. Read more (paywall).
BIG MONTHS: March and April were the best-ever months for new charger installations, according to figures from Zap-Map – with installs rising 75% compared to the same time in 2022. Chair of ChargeUK Ian Johnston said, “These figures show the huge step-up in deployment of EV charging infrastructure that is underway in 2023, which will give further confidence to those considering making the switch to an electric vehicle.” Read more.
ANY DEVICE: Bypass is a new EV card that is due to launch in June claiming that fleets can pay ant any charger through its app. Read more.
VOLT SWAP: According to Autocar, the Chinese carmaker Nio might not be expected to officially launch its swap stations until next year. See more. Previously, Nio’s Network Development Lead in the UK had suggested the battery swap stations would roll out this year.
NEXT WEEK… Just to let you know, there will be no newsletter next Tuesday – I’ll be recovering from a mate’s stag do. See you in a couple of weeks!
By Tom Riley | Check my Linktree for LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok