Designed for uptime
EV charging reliability in Scotland: Why uptime is a shared responsibility
By Justin Meyer, Managing Director, Evolt Charging (part of SWARCO Smart Charging)
As EV adoption grows across Scotland, drivers are increasingly relying on public charging infrastructure as a normal part of everyday travel, whether that’s on long-distance routes, at destinations, or in more remote parts of the country.
With that reliance comes a simple expectation: charging should work, consistently and safely, wherever it’s provided. Reliability isn’t a ‘nice to have’, it is central to driver confidence and the wider transition to electric transport.
Publicly accessible charge points often sit within multi-stakeholder environments, including hosts, landowners, network operators, local authorities, service providers and insurers. They may all play a role in how chargers are maintained, repaired and, where necessary, replaced.
What matters most
That’s why clear ownership structures, planned maintenance regimes and transparent escalation processes are so important. As the sector matures, the industry must continue to strengthen how responsibility is defined and how uptime is protected – particularly in environments where chargers are exposed to external risks beyond normal operating conditions.
Charging infrastructure operates in public space, which makes resilience and protection as important as maintenance itself. Some issues can be resolved quickly through routine intervention, but others require broader coordination, particularly where replacement, insurance processes or site approvals are involved.
What matters most is that the system around the charger, and not just the hardware itself, is designed to support reliability over the long-term.
At Evolt Charging, we’ve supported EV infrastructure across Scotland for more than 15 years, working with hosts, operators and public bodies in environments that range from urban centres to remote locations.
Today, we work with more than 250 hosts and charge point owners to support EV charging across Scotland, delivering a range of maintenance arrangements from fully managed service, maintenance and back-office support to modular, targeted services. In total, this spans more than 5,000 chargers across 860 sites, supporting both local authorities and private charging networks.
Reliability at scale depends on disciplined maintenance, responsive support and long-term operational presence.
2025 in numbers
For Scotland in 2025 alone, our teams:
- Completed over 3,000 contracted, pre-planned maintenance visits in 2025
- Commissioned 789 new chargers across Scotland in 2025
- Completed over 5,300 servicing and repair jobs, both on-site and remote and covering both full maintenance contracts and ad-hoc callouts
- Delivered an exceptional 93.77% first-time fix rate, reflecting strong operational performance and technical expertise.
Key learnings
What we’ve learnt over the years is that not every issue can be resolved through routine intervention alone. Occasionally, unexpected incidents can cause significant damage that requires full unit replacement and close collaboration between charge point owners, their insurers and delivery partners. These situations underline why resilience, planning and clear communication are essential parts of delivering reliable charging.
For hosts and site owners, reliability is not just about installing chargers, it’s about ensuring they remain trusted infrastructure over time. It is also about choosing a partner with the experience to deliver at scale, the local presence to respond when issues arise, and the foresight to plan for what comes next.
Our principles
At Evolt Charging, our approach is built on three simple principles:
- Proven, through more than 15 years of delivering and maintaining EV infrastructure across Scotland
- Present, with teams on the ground, strategically located across Scotland, working closely with charge point owners and stakeholders every day
- Prepared, with the systems, expertise and partnerships needed to support the continued growth of EV charging, whatever the conditions.
As Scotland’s charging infrastructure continues to grow, the focus must remain clear. Charge point owners must operate their chargers under effective servicing contracts to keep them online, maintain driver confidence and build systems communities can rely on for the long term.
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