The Scottish government has announced an extra £17.8m in 2026/2027 for incentives aimed at encouraging drivers in the country to take up electric vehicles. 

The packages are mostly focused on efforts to boosting charging infrastructure, including an initiative to install up to 1,000 charge points in rural and island locations, money for people who live in flats to get plugs installed, and further grants for people without off-street parking to install pavement charge points. 

The Scottish government says that its EV incentive schemes are intended to sit on top of those offered by the UK government, which include the plug-in grant discount of up to £3,750 on new electric vehicles and up to £500 towards the installation and purchase cost of a home charger for renters and landlords. 

Scotland has long been ahead of Westminster with its incentive packages, offering a comprehensive set of measures that included a zero interest loan for buying a secondhand electric car, although that scheme has unfortunately now stopped with no mention yet on whether it might be reintroduced. Electrifying.com has been calling for a similar measure to be introduced across the UK.

Scotland’s transport secretary Fiona Hyslop emphasised that Scotland remained committed to its net zero target for 2045 and that the new measures would help it on the way to that: “I’m proud of the progress made to date in growing the public charging network in Scotland, and supporting individuals to install their own charging solutions, and I look forward to seeing both the number of EV owners and charge points continue to rise – ensuring that no one is left behind in the EV transition.”