Irish electric vehicle charging firm EasyGo has been awarded a 20-year, £300 million contract to provide EV charging infrastructure for the north of Scotland.

The deal, which covers the Highland, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Moray Council areas, is the first inter-council contract to have been awarded as part of the Scottish Government’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund and is the largest grant award in Scotland since the fund’s inception. 

The large-scale EV infrastructure project is expected to accelerate the region’s transition to net zero, with 570 new charging points installed across northern Scotland by 2028, more than doubling the existing EV infrastructure.

EasyGo, which currently operates over 4,500 chargers across 1,500 locations in Ireland, will also take on the management of the 425 pre-existing council-owned public charging points in the region, with the partnership including access to more than fifty hub locations for high-capacity charging deployment.

“The Scottish councils’ commitment to becoming net zero by 2030 aligns perfectly with EasyGo’s mission,” said Ollie Chatten, CEO of EasyGo.

“Working with progressive councils across the country to expand EV infrastructure is a vital step toward a more sustainable and future-focused Scotland. We are thrilled to support them in achieving this goal through our EV charging solutions as we help build the smart towns and cities of the future.”

Transport Scotland has committed more than £7 million of funding towards the deal as part of the Scottish Government’s £30 million Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, which is set to support the delivery of around 6,000 additional public charge points by 2030.

According to Scotland’s transport secretary, Fiona Hyslop, the procurement partnership across the four local authorities is expected to leverage over £4.9 million of additional matched private sector funding over the next three years to expand public charging infrastructure in the region.

Under the partnership with EasyGo, EV charging points for Moray could quadruple in number within the next two and a half years, while charging locations in the Aberdeen City Council area could skyrocket from just eighty-three today to more than 270.

In the Highlands, over 150 new charging points are planned, bringing the total to 271 by the end of 2027, while Aberdeenshire Council will add more than a hundred new locations, reaching almost 200 across the region.

“This is a hugely aspirational programme for all our regions, and I very much welcome the future development of additional electric vehicle charging infrastructure to help future-proof our network,” said Gillian Owen, leader of Aberdeenshire Council.

“As a large rural authority, we acknowledge that more needs to be done to improve and extend the existing infrastructure to cater for under-served areas across Aberdeenshire and to ensure far greater reliability of services for motorists. 

“Through this ambitious partnership approach, I am confident it will encourage a major increase in EV usage and help promote equality within both rural and urban areas.”

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The Scottish Government plans to phase out petrol and diesel cars altogether within the next five years, ahead of the UK Government’s 2040 target, and has so far ploughed £65 million into establishing the fourth largest electric vehicle charging network in the UK.   

According to ZapMap, Scotland experienced 49% growth in public EV charging between June 2023 and October 2024, with the country now having over 6,000 public EV charge points, and the Scottish Government plans to add 24,000 more charge points by 2030, largely financed and delivered by the private sector.

The EasyGo partnership also follows the Scottish Government’s announcement just last week that it will provide more than £20 million to encourage low-income households and business owners to purchase EVs as another strand of its efforts to meet strict net zero targets.

That funding package, set to roll out across 2025/26, is set to run alongside the Government’s core Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, and build on the more than £230 million in loans already provided to help Scots transition to electric transport. 

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