Switched on Scotland: A roadmap to widespread adoption of plug in vehicles

Influencing Factors

Action

Status

Comments

Policy Frameworks

Transport Scotland to continue to engage with colleagues across Government and the wider public sector to promote the inclusion of plug-in vehicles in relevant policies and strategies.

Achieved with ongoing activity

Working towards the widespread adoption of plug-in vehicles now forms part of several significant national policies. including:

• National Transport Strategy Refresh,
• Cleaner Air for Scotland,
• Third National Planning Framework ,
• Scottish Planning Policy.
  

  The majority of local transport strategies written since the publication of the Roadmap in 2013 contain references to ULEVs.

  Supported by funding from Transport Scotland initiatives Switched on Fleets and the Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Support Scheme, every community planning partnership in Scotland has incorporated plug-in vehicles into their fleet .

Policy Frameworks

Scottish Government, as part of ongoing vehicle replacement cycle, to replace fossil-fuelled vehicles with plug-in vehicles, where appropriate.

Achieved with ongoing activity

Transport Scotland has supported the addition of 21 plug-in vehicles into the Scottish Government fleet (~10% of the total fleet) .

Policy Frameworks

Scottish Government to prepare legislation to implement a new permitted development right for off-road charge points.

Complete

Permitted development rights for off-road charge points came into force on 30 June 2014.

Market Development

Recharging

Economic Opportunity

Transport Scotland to provide funding and work with partners to support evidence-based analysis of public sector fleets to create new opportunities for the deployment of plug-in vehicles.

Achieved with ongoing activity

Public sector organisations have been procuring an increasing number of plug-in vehicles, supported by the Transport Scotland-funded Switched On Fleets initiative, which was managed by the Energy Saving Trust Scotland (EST) and Route Monkey.

Recharging

Transport Scotland to install charge points at all main Scottish Government buildings.

Complete

Charge points have been installed at Scottish Government buildings in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Galashiels, Inverness, Inverurie and South Queensferry.

Energy Systems

Scottish Government to consider how best to strengthen guidance for planning authorities relating to plug-in vehicle charge point provision in new developments as part of a review of Scottish Planning Policy.

Complete

High level planning policy in Scotland recognises the importance of considering EV charging infrastructure in new developments. Supportive text is included in both the Third National Planning Framework and the Scottish Planning Policy 2014.

In addition, permitted development rights for off-road charge points came into force on 30 June 2014.

Influencing Factors

Action

Status

Comments

Policy Frameworks

Market Development

Transport Scotland to review the existing evidence base and identify needs for new research or data to support the development of policies which impact on plug-in vehicles, such as air quality, health and energy.

Achieved with ongoing activity

Research has been commissioned on 'Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Potential In The Scottish Transport Sector From Recent Advances In Transport Fuels And Fuel Technologies' to inform the development of the next iteration of the Scottish Government's Climate Change Plan, which is due to be laid in Parliament in January 2017.

An Electric Vehicles and Energy Systems report was published in July 2016 to support the Scottish Government's twin ambitions of encouraging widespread adoption of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and developing a secure, sustainable and affordable electricity grid.

Policy Frameworks

Economic Opportunity

Scottish Government and its partners to continue to engage with international plug-in vehicle networks and projects to attract funding and support policy debates.

Achieved with ongoing activity

Transport Scotland and the E-cosse partnership has been represented at a range of international events including Electric Vehicle Symposiums, Mobile World Congress, POLIS and European Electromobility Stakeholder Forum. Locations include: Barcelona, Bratislava, Japan, Ireland and Belgium.

Transport Scotland have secured European Regional Development Funding and are scheduled to launch a Low Carbon Travel and Transport Challenge Fund in November/December 2016. This capital funding will support the development of 'hubs', including refuelling facilities for a range of alternatively fuelled vehicles. The programme also aims to increase the number of ULEV registration in Scotland by 200. £8 million is available during the first phase, which runs until the end of 2018.

Market Development

Transport Scotland to work with OLEV to share data and insights from the Plugged in Places project.

Complete

Transport Scotland met regularly to share information with OLEV to ensure a joined up approach. This included provision of data on the developing charging network in Scotland, and input into the evaluation of the Plugged in Places programme.

Market Development

Sustainable Transport

Economic Opportunity

The Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and partners in the public and private sector to promote Scotland as an attractive location to introduce new consumer offerings and mobility services for plug-in vehicles.

Achieved with ongoing activity

The Scottish Enterprise Mobility Integration Challenge was setup in 2013 as part of a vision to make Scotland the global location of choice for the demonstration of Smart Mobility products . It closed to applicants in January 2014, after generating 57 collaborative demonstrator project ideas involving over 180 firms. Bidders committed £61 million of investment, seeking £47 million of public sector support and private sector investment. Scottish Enterprise also put in place a Smart Mobility 'Champion' in 2013 to grow Scottish capabilities in this area.

The Smart Mobility opportunity development programme was closed in December 2015 in order to move to an "industry led" approach aligned with the Scottish Enterprise 'Business As Usual' appraisal procedures and grant product rules. Engineering Scotland's Automotive Forum is seeking assistance from Scottish Enterprise for a "Future of Automotive" event.

Recharging

Transport Scotland to continue to provide funding for the safe and convenient installation of domestic, workplace and en-route charge points.

Achieved with ongoing activity

As of August 2016, the ChargePlace Scotland network consisted of over 600 publicly available charge points, including over 150 rapid charging points, equating to over 1,200 charging bays

To support domestic EV charging, Transport Scotland has provided grants of up to £500 to EV drivers, via the Energy Saving Trust (EST), to enable them to have a charge point installed at their home. As of September 2016 over 700 domestic units have been installed. EST funding of £500, alongside £500 from OLEV, continues to be available in 2016/17.

Via EST, Transport Scotland also funds the installation of charge points at commercial workplaces. As of August 2016, over 200 organisations had benefitted from the scheme.

Recharging

Transport Scotland to commission a review of the opportunities to transition infrastructure provision in Scotland from a Government-funded pilot to a private sector-led initiative that meets Scotland's long-term needs for recharging infrastructure.

Ongoing

Scottish Ministers are continuing to fund the growing ChargePlace Scotland network. In August 2016, Charge Your Car Limited were appointed as the Charge Point Network Operator for 3 or 4 years with the new system commencing in October 2016.

Recharging

Transport Scotland to roll out a network of pay-as-you-go charge points in Scotland - making payment for charging/parking as straightforward as possible for plug-in vehicle drivers.

Ongoing

Transport Scotland has rolled out a public charging network across Scotland, see Action 18. The majority of charge points provide electricity free to the driver, using an RFID card, online or on phone. Work will continue with the Charge Point Network Operator to review options going forward.

Recharging

Transport Scotland to deploy rapid charge points at intervals of at least 50 miles on Scotland's primary road network to enable extended all-electric journeys.

Complete

The rapid charger network has been expanded to enable extended all-electric journeys with rapid chargers at intervals of every 50 miles.

Sustainable Transport

Scottish Green Bus Fund to continue to support the wider roll-out of low emission buses across Scotland.

Achieved with ongoing activity

The Scottish Green Bus Fund provides the opportunity for interested parties (e.g. operators, local authorities, regional transport partnerships) to bid for a grant to help towards the purchase of new low emission buses. The Fund, through 5 rounds, has now provided almost £13 million of funding, enabling 269 new buses to join the Scottish fleet.

Sustainable Transport

Communication & Education

Support for the promotion of shared plug-in vehicles through the Developing Car Clubs in Scotland programme.

Complete

Scottish car clubs currently have almost 10,000 members and a fleet of over 340 vehicles, across 26 locations. There has also been an increase in peer-to-peer car sharing. The Developing Car Clubs in Scotland programme supported the purchase of new plug-in vehicles into car clubs, resulting in 24% of the Scottish car club fleet being plug-ins. This includes the all-electric E-car, club operating in St Andrews .I

n August 2016, there were 81 car club plug-in vehicles in Scotland, more than the rest of the UK combined at that time.

Sustainable Transport

Transport Scotland to continue the deployment of charge points at park and ride sites and other transport interchanges.

Achieved with ongoing activity

There has been targeted investment to provide charge points at hubs for multi-modal journeys. Charge points have been installed at the following ferry terminals: Tarbert, Colonsay, Kilchoan, Castlebay, Oban, Brodick, Kennacraig, Port Ellen, Scrabster, Gill's Bay and Ullapool. Whilst the following park and ride sites also have charge points available: Kinross, Kingswells, Dumbarton, Ingliston and Castleview.

Sustainable Transport

Transport Scotland to encourage the deployment of electric vehicle charging points at railway stations with bidders for the new ScotRail Franchise.

Ongoing

As part of the ScotRail franchise agreement, Abellio ScotRail are committed to providing charging facilities at 50 stations across Scotland by the end of 2017, with additional incentives for plug-in vehicle drivers also being considered.

Economic Opportunity

Scottish Enterprise to unite, understand, support and strengthen Smart Mobility activity including (but not limited to) Transport Systems, Informatics and Energy Companies from which economic benefits flow. This will include growing capability and capacity around Smart Mobility, stimulating projects, realising benefits and expanding global reach.

Achieved with ongoing activity

See Action 16

Influencing Factors

Action

Status

Comments

Policy Frameworks

Sustainable Transport

Scottish Government to determine the role plug-in vehicles can play in Air Quality Action Plans as part of the review of Local Air Quality Management in Scotland.

Complete

In November 2015, the Scottish Government published the low emission strategy, Cleaner Air for Scotland,. The document confirms the commitment to decarbonise transport, clearly making the links between transport, air quality and health.

The strategy makes a commitment to continue to deliver the actions contained in Switched On Scotland in relation to increasing uptake of plug-in vehicles.

Policy Frameworks

Market Development

Transport Scotland to work with Energy Saving Trust and other stakeholders to prepare guidance on the actions that can be taken to promote plug-in vehicles.

Complete

Both OLEV and EST have produced comparisons of different Plug-in vehicles and guidance documents for fleet managers on how to incorporate Plug-in vehicles into fleets.

Transport Scotland was on the steering group for research undertaken by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership's into best practice for local measures to encourage the uptake of low emission vehicles. A number of Scottish LAs contributed to the development of this report.

A report on a National Framework for Local Incentives in Scotland looked at implementation of four specific incentives: parking, road access, taxi licencing and planning. This was published in Autumn 2016.

Market Development

Scottish Government to work with the UK Government to assess the future provision of incentives and the most effective way to support the developing markets for plug-in vehicles.

Achieved with ongoing activity

Transport Scotland has regular contact with OLEV, to share evidence and best practice and discuss the provision of current and future incentives.

This has led to the provision of complementary funding packages. For example, in addition to the UK Government's plug-in car and van grant, Transport Scotland are providing over £7 million of funding to EST in 2016/17 for a Low Carbon Transport Loan Scheme for both consumers and businesses.

Furthermore, Transport Scotland's Switched On Fleets Programme ran in parallel to OLEVs ULEV Readiness project – both with the intention of increasing the uptake of plug-ins in the public sector fleet.

Scottish local authorities have also benefited from support from OLEV, for example Dundee has been selected as one of eight cities to receive a share of the £40 million, which was available through the Go Ultra Low City Scheme. Dundee's bid was highly commended and received an award of almost £1.9 million. This will see the creation of innovative charging hubs in the city.

Market Development

Transport Scotland to work with local authorities, planning authorities and COSLA to develop a national framework for local incentives.

Complete

Since the publication of Switched on Scotland, Transport Scotland, COSLA, SCOTS, and local authorities have worked together to explore the potential for local plug-in vehicle incentives to be introduced in Scotland. This led to the publication of 'A National Framework for Local Incentives' in Autumn 2016. The Framework identifies a range of local measures relating to 4 key areas(planning, parking, road access and taxis and private hire vehicles), that can be implemented and provides guidance and examples of good practice to support successful implementation.

Transport Scotland also supported a study commissioned by LowCVP on local measures to encourage the uptake of low emission vehicles.

Market Development

Scottish Government to continue working closely with industry to meet the changing needs of the plug-in vehicle market.

Achieved with ongoing activity

See Action 9 regarding E-cosse.

2016 saw the latest edition of GreenFleet Scotland at Ingliston Showground, Edinburgh. The event has attracted 2150 attendees since it launched in 2009.

Sustainable Transport

Scottish Government to work with partners to undertake a study into the development of a national framework for establishing low emission zones.

Complete

The low emission strategy, Cleaner Air for Scotland, outlines the process for establishing the National Low Emission Framework. The framework will include a standard appraisal process for assessing local air quality measures. The options included in the framework are: low emission zones; clean air zones; other access regulation schemes; traffic management; and, vehicle licencing regulations.

Influencing Factors

Action

Status

Comments

Market Development

Sustainable Transport

Communication & Education

Scottish Government to develop a plug-in vehicle marketing campaign as part of wider Greener Scotland activity, to raise awareness, promote incentives and communicate benefits of plug-in vehicles.

Achieved with ongoing activity

The Scottish Government ran a marketing campaign, 'EVs are Go', around the launch of the Roadmap to raise awareness. The campaign included: a launch event with strong media attendance resulting in 12 pieces of news coverage including the front page of the Metro newspaper; local media released in key areas; and, targeted consumer and trade news releases resulting in five further articles. The campaign created nearly 450 million opportunities for individuals to see and hear about the Plug-in vehicles with coverage generated estimated to be worth £2.4 million.

In 2016 the Scottish Government undertook plug-in vehicle field marketing activity with the 'Electric Cars have always been Fun' campaign stand which toured in Dundee, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow. The campaign was successful in providing visitors with new information, around charging and car performance with 78% of survey respondents saying they learned something new from their visit and 78% also saying the stand increased their interest in finding out more about electric cars.

Marketing activity will continue into 2017.

Market Development

Economic Opportunity

Communication & Education

Energy Saving Trust to continue to promote its support for Scottish businesses to adopt plug-in vehicles through EV Awareness Raising Workshops, Sustainable Transport Advice Service and Interest Free Low Carbon Transport Loans and FuelGood driver training.

Achieved with ongoing activity

EST has led a programme of engagement events across Scotland to increase awareness of Plug-in vehicles, including EV hotspot events in Kirkcaldy, Broughty Ferry, Tobermory and Dunbar. In September 2016, EST's plug-in vehicle roadshow at Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre, attracted more than 700 visitors, who undertook over 100 test drives.

In September 2015, EST organised a plug-in vehicle rally to promote wider public awareness of vehicles and the Charge Place Scotland public charging network. More than 60 vehicles were displayed in Glasgow's George Square on a busy Saturday, creating a significant amount of public interest. The rally concluded at Stirling University with a presentation by celebrity plug-in vehicle owner and enthusiast, Robert Llewellyn, and generated significant coverage in print and online media.

Transport Scotland are providing over £7 million of funding to EST in 2016/17 for a Low Carbon Transport Loan Scheme for both consumers and businesses. Consumers can apply for a loan of up to £35,000 to cover the cost of purchasing a plug-in vehicle, while businesses can apply for a loan of up to £100,000 which can be used towards a wide range of measures to reduce the business' transport carbon footprint (including the purchase of electric cars and vans, up to £35,000 for each vehicle purchased).

Recharging

Sustainable Transport

Energy Systems

Economic Opportunity

Communication & Education

Transport Scotland to develop an outreach and education strategy for plug-in vehicles.

Achieved with ongoing activity

An E-cosse forum on communications and outreach was held in Dundee in October 2015.

This informed the production of an internal scoping report on plug-in vehicle communications, to promote awareness, understanding and positive attitudes towards plug-in vehicles.

The scoping report helped to inform Greener Scotland marketing activity and will be developed further in the next phase of Roadmap delivery.

Recharging

Communication & Education

Transport Scotland to continue to develop the electric vehicle content on the Greener Scotland website to provide information on plug-in vehicles, recharging and respond to the needs of EV and PHEV drivers.

Complete

The plug-in vehicles content on the Greener Scotland website was given a major update in September 2013. The website contains information on: the benefits of plug-in vehicles; different types of vehicles; links for arrange test drives; grants and funding available; and, support on charging, both at home and publicly available charge points.

Communication & Education

Energy Saving Trust to launch an electric vehicle network tool for individuals and organisations to allow them to speak to current plug-in vehicle owners and experience plug-in vehicles first hand at their local dealerships.

Complete

Electric Vehicle Network launched in Sept 2013. The Network enables individuals and businesses considering adoption of Plug-in vehicles to find and meet others who already use Plug-in vehicles to seek advice. There were over 40 individual members and over 20 business members on the network during 2015/16 and the network was searched 1,820 times.

Communication & Education

The Scottish Government and industry bodies to work with Education Scotland to review existing resource provision for schools relating to plug-in vehicles and develop further where appropriate.

Ongoing

An internal scoping report has been developed, taking a wide look at the role of education and skills in achieving the Roadmap's 2050 vision.

The report will be used as the basis for further engagement with bodies such as Education Scotland, Skills Development Scotland, training providers and employer groups . . The aim will be to ensure education and skills requirements for the developing plug-in vehicle market are understood and employment and economic opportunities in areas such as niche manufacturing and supply chain are realised.

Communication & Education

Scottish Government to work with industry, Skills Development Scotland and other key stakeholders, such as the Scottish Funding Council, to quantify and determine the nature and demand for plug-in vehicle education and skills and review and revise provision accordingly.

Ongoing

See Action 36