All 500 of its free-to-use charging points will be available to Charge Your Car customers, with a further 250 to be installed and connected by March 2013, more than doubling the company’s existing network. The process is helped by Transport Scotland’s use of Open Charge Point Protocol compliant units, which means they can be connected to the same back-office system regardless of the manufacturer.

Charge Your Car, which launched as the North East region’s Plugged-in Places scheme, announced plans to create the UK’s first pay-as-you-go charging network in February this year before partnering with Elektromotive to establish a nationwide scheme in July.

Once complete, this will allow electric vehicle drivers to cover long distances without needing membership cards for multiple charging point schemes to use local infrastructure en route. Charge Your Car will handle billing on behalf of the charging point owners, and access to the entire network will be offered via smartphone from a scheduled 2013 launch.

Mike Foster, senior project manager at Transport Scotland said: ‘Transport Scotland is putting in place the infrastructure that will enable Scotland’s motorists to purchase and operate electric vehicles. By joining the Charge Your Car network we are ensuring that EV drivers everywhere will be able to access and use our infrastructure in a way that is convenient for them.’