New figures show less than 1% of Glasgow cars are electric or hybrid plug-ins

There were 2169 ultra low emission vehicles in Glasgow in July.

Data obtained by GlasgowWorld shows that, as of July 2021, there were 2169 ultra low emission vehicles registered in the city.

Ultra low emission vehicles are defined as having less than 75g of CO2 per kilometre (g/km) from the tail pipe - and include electric cars, plug-in hybrids and extended range electric vehicles.

Only 932 of those registered in Glasgow are private owned (rather than fleet cars).

The most recent information shows that there are 238,000 registered vehicles in the city, meaning just 0.91 per cent are classed as ultra low emission vehicles.

How does that compare with the rest of the UK?

Ranked against other local authority areas across the UK, Glasgow comes 146th.

The 0.91 per cent figure is also much lower than the UK average of 1.42 per cent.

How many charging devices are there in Glasgow?

As of July 2021, there were 199 public electric charging devices in the city, meaning there were just 31.3 for every 100,000 people in Glasgow.

This is below the UK average (36.3).

What about the whole of Scotland?

According to the data, there are 2,519,800 registered vehicles in the whole of Scotland - 34,170 of which are electric cars.

At 1.36 per cent, that is a higher percentage than Wales, Northern Ireland and parts of England such as Yorkshire.

However, in London, which topped the list, 2.31 per cent of vehicles are electric cars.

What are campaign groups saying?

With world leaders under immense pressure to step up climate action to tackle dangerous global warming at the COP26 summit, pressure groups have called on the UK Government to make urgent investments in Britain’s green transport infrastructure.

The IPPR North think-tank said this would “unlock economic opportunity and help close the UK’s stark region divides”.

The Department for Transport said local councils have a “crucial role to play” to encourage uptake of the vehicles.

If you would like to find information on electric vehicle ownership in the UK, visit our sister site, NationalWorld.