Dundee is first Scottish council to ditch Chargeplace Scotland

Dundee has become Scotland’s first council to migrate its public charging network away from ChargePlace Scotland.

Dundee City Council confirmed that its entire public and fleet charging network of more than 190 charging points will now be managed and maintained by Evolt Charging.

The move comes as government investment in the centrally managed ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) comes to an end and councils around the country look for private partners to keep devices operational.

The city council and Evolt Charging have worked together for almost 15 years on multiple projects, from its first EV charging location in 2011, to the UK’s first purpose-built EV charging hub at Princes Street in 2018.

The migration saw all 190 of Dundee’s CPS chargers, including four rapid charging hubs moved across to the EVolt network in less than three weeks, with each charger offline for no more than an hour.

Positively, drivers will still be able to use their CPS charge cards to access the chargers for as long as CPS remains operational.

Justin Meyer, managing director of SWARCO Smart Charging said: “Over the last 15 years we have built a close, trusted relationship with the city of Dundee and its council.

“Having invested significantly, with more than 50 employees based in the city, we have built an expert and local team that has a deep knowledge of Dundee’s EV Infrastructure. Our teams know the existing system inside and out, which enabled a rapid, responsive migration process with minimal disruption to drivers which is our most important metric.”

Cllr Siobhan Tolland, depute convener of fair work, economic growth and infrastructure at Dundee City Council, added: “We’re extremely proud that Dundee continues to lead by example in delivering sustainable transport and mobility solutions.

“This seamless migration highlights the strength of our longstanding partnership with Evolt Charging and our continued focus on delivering real economic benefits – including retaining jobs locally – alongside ensuring the sustained growth and reliability of Dundee’s EV charging infrastructure.”

Evolt Charging is part of the larger SWARCO business group, which took over back-end operation of CPS in 2021. The move will see it responsible for managing, operating and maintaining Dundee’s public and fleet EV infrastructure over the next 20 years.

Chargeplace Scotland was a pioneering public charging network set up in 2013 by the Scottish Government to encourage drivers to switch to electric vehicles. It initially offered free slow, fast and rapid charging at locations around the country and by 2023 had more than 2,500 devices, including 600 rapid chargers.

However, despite starting to charge for its services, it has suffered from underinvestment in recent years, leaving its technology lagging behind and drivers facing increasing reliability problems.

In 2023, the Scottish Government announced in 2023 that it would stop CPS at the end of 2025, with the network’s devices and locations becoming the responsibility of individual local authorities.

It said that the rising number of EV drivers on the road and the growing need to keep investing in the network made it “unsustainable” for the public sector to support CPS alone.

As a result, councils such as Dundee are now seeking private partners to help operate and maintain their existing CPS devices and locations.