STATISTICS shared by ChargePlace Scotland show that the City of Edinburgh is one of the lowest ranking areas for uptime on electric car charging.
Uptime involves the amount of time that a machine is working and available for use.
One port in Edinburgh was seen to have been working for only half the total time since it was installed.
The local authority with the highest uptime on charging was Inverclyde with a 99.77% average.
ChargePlace Scotland produces information regarding charge points owned by local authorities, public bodies, charities and businesses who have received funding from the Scottish Government to install them.
The owners are therefore responsible for maintenance of the point, as well as the tariff rate they charge.
Edinburgh resident Harry Williams analysed the numbers and shared graphs on social media yesterday, saying: “The City of Edinburgh is one of the worst public authorities in Scotland for electric vehicles charging uptime.
“This includes a charger on Heriot Row with ~50% uptime.
“That means half the time of its existence, it has not been working.”
In addition to multiple other Edinburgh charging points operating between 50% and 60% uptime, one port in the Oxgangs area had an abysmal 14.5% uptime rate for December 2024 – and was used only twice.
It appears that Edinburgh ranks sixth lowest on the list of 32 local authorities in Scotland, just below Perth and Kinross but above Dundee City and South Ayrshire.
When looking at uptime in Edinburgh over the last six months, October saw lows of 96.23%, whereas December showed a slight increase to 96.96%.
The number of chargers in the city has also fallen, from 197 in July last year to 187 in December.
It remains that the number of chargers in Edinburgh is relatively high, but their uptime is low when compared to other regions.
Glasgow, for example, has 212 chargers that operated at 98.25% on average last December.
Harry said today: “There is not much variation between councils overall, but it can be frustrating to navigate to a charger and it not be working.
“In my opinion anything other than above 99% uptime is an issue.
“Especially since Edinburgh council scores quite low compared to others in Scotland.
“What is most disappointing is that they have actually reduced the amount of overall public chargers over the past six months.”
The City of Edinburgh Council has been contacted for comment.
