Highland Council have introduced charges of £0.30 at a 'Journey Charger' (Highland Council's definition) and £0.20 at a 'Destination Charger however at Journey Chargers charging is permitted for 45 minutes with a grace period of 15 minutes and then a penalty charge of £1.00 per minute. Such a penalty charge discriminates against Hybrid users which require longer to charge. When challenged about their charges the Council state that; "Our approach is fully endorsed by the Electric Vehicle Association Scotland".
While accepting that some penalty for blocking up chargers is fair surely such penalties are unfair, discriminatory and work against local economies and are counter to the principles of EVAS?

The terms #JourneyCharger and #Destination Charger are ones that the Association promotes. This is to encourage best and most appropriate use of the infrastructure to support EV driving. The challenge is that the higher power units are absolutely essential for enabling BEV journeys. It is key to keep dwell times on these units short so that drivers are not left with long waits to continue their journeys, while also maximising the revenue to ensure the costs of owning and operating the chargers are met. (Not an exercise for profit for LAs!) As a rule we would encourage drivers to use chargers with an output appropriate to the car. What we would like to see is every council provide greater numbers of #DestinationChargers to support those staying longer, choosing or having to charge at a lower rate.

At present Highland has no policy for this, but we would encourage all drivers, local or visiting to highlight areas where more infrastructure is needed by emailing them at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

More info at https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/1210/environment/943/electric_vehicle_infrastructure