The Scottish Government’s key climate target to install 30,000 electric car-charging stations could be missed by 12 years, analysis by the Tories has suggested.

It comes as figures from ChargePlace Scotland, the charging network owned by the Scottish Government, showed 169 chargers had been added between October 2022 and August 2023.

Meanwhile, separate figures released by the Scottish Government earlier this year said there were almost 4,000 charging stations across Scotland as of June 2023.

But analysis from the Scottish Tories suggests the Scottish Government is “miles off” the target, with around 1,900 charging points installed between January 2022 and 2023.

Based on these figures, the Tories have suggested it could take until 2042 – 12 years after the deadline – for ministers to reach 30,000.

Douglas Lumsden, the party’s energy and transport spokesman, said: “These eye-opening statistics lay bare the fact that this SNP/Green Government are miles off delivering electric charging points needed to meet demand across Scotland.

Want to see Scotland under the SNP?