ScottishPower today welcomed the news that the Office for Low Emission Vehicles has awarded a Transport Scotland-led consortium £1.45m, which will be matched by the Scottish Government, to create a corridor of electric vehicle charging points across the central belt of Scotland. As a key consortium member, ScottishPower will be working closely with the other partners to develop the electricity network so it can host up to 375 charging points, and support the rollout of electric vehicles.

As the only energy company involved in the project, ScottishPower will help to identify the charging locations and configure the electricity network to support their installation and operation. This work will tie-in with ScottishPower’s established research on ‘Smart Grids’, which aims to ensure that electricity networks can be managed to support future changes to the way they operate – such as an increase in electric vehicles on the road and more renewable energy technologies being used by homes and businesses.

ScottishPower is already working on the Technology Strategy Board’s Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstration trial in Glasgow and will be able to draw on experiences from this project to benefit the larger scale roll-out of this new technology. Through its parent company Iberdrola, ScottishPower also has a strategic relationship with General Motors to consider a range of technical aspects associated with supporting electric cars.

As part of the Transport Scotland Consortium, the energy company will also feed-in to the design of charging points and the way they will interact with vehicles and customers.

Jamie Wilson, Commercial Director of ScottishPower Energy Retail, said: “We fully support the ambitions of the Scottish Government and the UK Government to significantly reduce carbon emissions released in to the atmosphere, and we welcome the funding announced today by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles. This project will help to encourage an increase in the take-up of electric vehicles in Scotland by connecting large areas of the country to a re-charging network, and we hope it will pave the way for the whole of the country to become plugged-in to electric vehicles.

“As a partner in this project, we will bring considerable experience of working to support electric vehicles. As well as helping to develop other trial projects, we have an ongoing partnership with General Motors to better understand how energy companies and vehicle manufacturers need to work together to deliver electric vehicles.

"Even with the current mix of power generation in the UK, a car powered by electricity has lower overall emissions per kilometre than standard petrol and diesel vehicles. In the future, as CO2 emissions are increasingly reduced from the process of generating and distributing electricity, these figures will only improve further. ScottishPower is committed to helping the country move towards this low carbon future.”

Notes to Editors:

• The Lead Consortium member is Transport Scotland. Other Consortium members: ScottishPower; Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife and South Lanarkshire Councils; Sestran (Edinburgh); Linkwide Ltd (Falkirk) Capital Shopping Centres (Glasgow)


• Keith Brown MSP,  Minister for Transport and Infrastructure said "The Scottish Government is delighted to have been selected for this £1.45m Department for Transport's Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) funding. This funding, matched by our own, will propel us forward in the process of putting publicly available electric charging infrastructure onto Scottish roads and will also support us in achieving our world leading climate change targets.”  Transport Scotland Press Contact Juliet Bell T: 0141 2727198 M: 07901102894

ScottishPower Media Information: Paul Ferguson: 0141 566 4515 / 07702 665 924