Skip to main content

Scottish council plans free electric car charge points

Motorists in Aberdeenshire, Scotland will soon be able to charge their electric vehicles and use solar-powered parking machines in town centres across county. Twenty of the solar-powered parking meters will be fitted at a cost of £80,000 which allows motorists to pay by cash, debit or credit card or their mobile phone. The council heard that the current parking machines are prone to theft and often break down. It was suggested that the redundant power supply from the ageing parking units could then be used
December 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Motorists in Aberdeenshire, Scotland will soon be able to charge their electric vehicles and use solar-powered parking machines in town centres across county.

Twenty of the solar-powered parking meters will be fitted at a cost of £80,000 which allows motorists to pay by cash, debit or credit card or their mobile phone.

The council heard that the current parking machines are prone to theft and often break down. It was suggested that the redundant power supply from the ageing parking units could then be used for electric car charge points.

The charge points, which would be offered to motorists in Banchory, Banff, Crathie, Ellon, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Inverurie, Peterhead, Stonehaven and Turriff would be free to use.

Mark Skilling, Strategy Manager for infrastructure, said: "We have the opportunity here to use the power supplies for something else. It is fair to say that the uptake across Scotland for electric vehicles is lower and slower than people expected it to be.

"We are going through changes and would like to see at least one charge point in each of our busiest town centres."

Related Content

  • Parifex speed cameras: picture perfect
    September 30, 2020
    From speed cameras to smart cities, image processing and AI – Parifex is not short of ambition. Nathalie Deguen tells Adam Hill where the French company is heading next
  • Technology, shifts in behaviour can improve urban transportation, says Conduent
    May 24, 2017
    According to Conduent’s Customer Experience of Urban Travel report that details findings from a survey conducted in 23 cities in 15 countries, although improved infrastructure plays a critical role in reshaping mobility in today’s cities, the biggest factor in improving urban travel is changing human behaviour. Researchers found that transportation selection is based on habit rather than rational choice, noting that respondents around the globe chose driving their own car over other modes of transport for r
  • Acusensus highlights magnitude of seatbelt problem
    March 8, 2023
    If you don’t wear a seatbelt, you’re disproportionately likely to be killed in road collisions. Geoff Collins of Acusensus talks to Adam Hill about how AI will allow police to monitor and prevent this risky behaviour
  • Geotoll’s payment app could be the smart answer to tolling interoperability
    July 30, 2013
    Jon Masters looks at a smartphone app which could be the ‘disruptive technology’ that eases the way to interoperability in tolling systems. Consumer demand may soon drive the biggest step change yet in tolling. In the United States a new start-up company, Geotoll, has launched a smartphone app for electronic toll payment. It is not beyond possibility that rapid growth of the market for smartphones will continue – an estimated 50% of US citizens and 80% of Europeans now have one – and that the Geotoll brand