An electric vehicle charging hub has been opened by the Scottish government’s public health minister.
Minister for public health, sport and wellbeing Joe FitzPatrick, hailed the Dundee hub as a “fantastic addition” to the city.
He said: “The Princes Street hub is another fantastic addition to Dundee and to the Chargeplace Scotland network, which is one of the most comprehensive electric vehicle charging networks in Europe.
“I’m continually impressed with the leadership that Dundee City Council has demonstrated in promoting electric vehicles, both in terms of their own fleet, and also in developing innovative infrastructure solutions that the local community, businesses and visitors can enjoy.”
The Scottish government has awarded £700,000 in grant funding to install publicly accessible charging infrastructure across the city, FitzPatrick said.
The Princes Street site, a former filling station includes solar canopies, charging points and electrical infrastructure.
In 2016 a £1.86 million award was given to the city by the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the charging hub has been built with money from that award.
Councillor Lynne Short, convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee, said: “We chose to put it on one of the main commuter routes into the city centre and trial a few new bits of technology to see how they might be used or adapted in other locations across the city.
“With support from both OLEV and Transport Scotland we are also able to put charging points into neighbouring council areas as a way of developing a regional network.
The chargers will be available to the public, local taxi and private hire fleets, NHS vehicles and local businesses.
Charging points were also funded by the OLEV grant and are situated at eight locations across the city.
With 87 electric vehicles, Dundee City Council is believed to now have the largest fleet of any local authority in the UK
The council owns 62 charging points at 13 publicly available charging locations.