Highland scores highly in electric vehicle survey
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The Highlands and Islands have been rated as among the best places in Scotland to own an electric car, and well ahead of Scotland's biggest cities.
The study, which was carried out by CarGuide.co.uk, rated Scotland's 32 local authorities by the number of charging points available per 100,000 people.
This put Highland in its top six local authority areas with 98.1 charging points per 100,000 people.
Topping the list was Orkney, with the equivalent of 178.6 charging points per 100,000 population. However, this is extrapolated from an actual figure of 40 charging points for a population of just 22,400.
Stirling, with 126.5 charging points per 100,000 people, and East Lothian with 118.6 are the top rated mainland locations, with the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar) making fourth spot with 105.7, just ahead of Argyll and Bute with 100.7.
Shetland rounds out the top seven with 91.8 charging points, though like the other island areas, in reality both the number of charging points and population are considerably smaller.
The study, which analysed the number of electric car charging points on ZapMap and ONS data, rated East Dunbartonshire as the worst place to own an electric car with only 23 charging points per 100,000 available.
Scotland's biggest cities also found themselves among the 10 worst local authority areas for electric car ownership with Edinburgh (33.7 charging points per 100,000 people) in seventh bottom slot and Glasgow (37.8 per 100,000 people) eighth.
However, the study takes no account of the size of each council area and the distance between each charging point.
CarGuide.co.uk founder, Olli Astley, commented: “Whilst we at CarGuide.co.uk believe that motorists getting into electric vehicles is the best way forward due to the benefits to the environment, the UK’s charging infrastructure still has a way to go."
