E-mobility infrastructure utilisation and planning in Scotland

The transition toward electric mobility is reshaping transport and energy systems, raising new challenges for the deployment and management of charging infrastructure. Existing research has largely centred on urban contexts, leaving rural and tourism-driven regions comparatively underexplored. This paper provides an empirical assessment of Scotland’s public EV charging network, combining a national-scale analysis of session-level utilisation data with a focused case study of the Highland Council area, a region where low population density, geographic dispersion, and demand seasonality intersect. The results show that charging demand in this area is marked by strong temporal fluctuations, with peak usage closely tied to seasonality and tourism windows, while off-season utilisation remains low. These dynamics highlight the limitations of conventional planning approaches that rely primarily on average utilisation metrics. Instead, infrastructure provision in such regions must be informed by context-sensitive planning and targeted strategies, such as demand-responsive expansion, co-location with local energy systems, and alignment with broader decarbonisation goals, to exhaust infrastructure effectiveness without necessitating continuous capacity growth.