New proposals for increasing the infrastructure to cater for more electric vehicles across Ayrshire have been revealed.

North, East and South Ayrshire Councils are drawing up plans to improve access to charging points across their region.

The proposals would involve working with a commercial supplier to increase the number of EV charge points from an existing 126 publicly funded and managed charge points, to an estimated 433 across Ayrshire.

Through the project, the three Councils are striving to ensure that 99% of Ayrshire properties without off-street parking will be within a 10-minute drive of a charge point.

East and South Ayrshire Councils – through the Ayrshire Roads Alliance – will consider the proposals in the coming weeks.

Investment will be sought from a mixture of national grant funding available from Transport Scotland through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund and private sector investment.

Councillor Tony Gurney, Cabinet Member for Economy and Climate Change at North Ayrshire Council, said: “As a Council we are striving to be net-zero by 2030 and the transition away from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles will play a huge role in us achieving this.

“We want to improve the reach of the public electric vehicle charging network, and we have positioned our proposals to take advantage of national grant funding to support the investment.

“To achieve economies of scale, we are looking to roll-out these additional charge points in partnership with our colleagues in East and South Ayrshire Councils, who are expected to consider the proposals for themselves in the coming few weeks.“

The three Ayrshire Councils hope to formalise the partnership arrangements later this year and it is hoped a contractor will be in place by the middle of next year.

(Picture – Yay Images)