EV Rental Car in Scotland

No the charging infrastructure is still dire and the main reason that we haven't bought an electric car. Skye has few chargers and they often break down. I would strongly advise against getting an EV rental car. Many forum members say that the best rental company to use in Scotland is Arnold Clark or their agent Celtic Legend. Avoid Green Motion at all costs.

I had some B&B guests who were badly let down by Sixt when their car got a flat tyre. In the end I had to call a local garage to come and help them out. Of course they then had to pay the garage when Sixt should have sorted the problem as they had taken tyre insurance.

Thank you!! Very helpful

We booked our rental in 2023 through Celtic Legends picking up our car at the Arnold Clark location near Glasgow Airport and returning the car outside Edinburgh 2 weeks later. No drop off fee and no fee for 2nd driver.

Both companies were easy to work with.

I don't recall seeing many charging stations .

and the fact that it would be fun to drive an EV,

That makes me think you do not have an electric car and therefore are not familiar with the charging procedure. You want to spend your vacation time learning?

From what I have seen/read, it is not as simple as charging your phone or computer.

Unless you know exactly where there are charging stations, and can guarantee you will be able to use them, I agree with others to NOT rent an electric vehicle.

With a regular car, you need fuel, you add it to the car in a few minutes. With an electric vehicle, it can take hours. Do you want to spend a chunk of your vacation time waiting for the car to charge?

We are planning a similar itinerary in Scotland and drive an EV at home so I was considering renting an EV. I looked at the charging infrastructure and it seems lacking outside of the two largest cities. Charging using fast (>= 100 kW) chargers isn’t much of an inconvenience, but using slower chargers takes much more time. It looks like there are a good number of 50 kW chargers, but they take roughly twice the time to charge as 100 kW chargers. Using the PlugShare app, I only see a few 100+ kW chargers outside of Edinburgh and Galway. I enjoy renting EVs on travel in the states, but am planning to use petrol for this trip.

The key to using an EV on holiday is to plan your overnight stays at accommodation with charging either on site or close by. If you can charge your car overnight you are unlikely to need to use fast charging. With a modern EV with a decent range and not planning to do huge driving days (which you shouldn’t do if you want to get the best from a trip in Scotland) there should be no real issues.

It's certainly a good idea to try to plan around charging points and accommodation that has them, but only last week we had guests arrive in an EV (their own - from France) who had discovered that few small B&Bs have invested in charging points (due to the cost - which would likely wipe out the profit from a season). They had assumed the point in the local village would be working. It wasn't. They were stuffed. Our home and business insurance strictly prohibits the use of the domestic circuit to charge and EV so we couldn't and wouldn't allow them to plug in to the electrical point in our garage and leave their car on charge overnight. I think they managed to limp to Portree the next day (where the points are often also out of order). So even good planning can let you down.
There is a reason that not many people here own EVs and the poor infrastructure is it.

EV or not, I'm another one who is loves renting from Arnold Clark. I've gotten cars from them on two different trips; one in England for a 6 week trip, and one in Scotland for 3 weeks. I could not have been happier with their service.

On the first trip I rented the car through Celtic Legend, which acts like a broker for Arnold Clark, and was very happy with the service I received. The second time I got a slightly lower price for renting directly through Arnold Clark, and that also worked out very well. One advantage to using CL is that you usually get an additional driver for no extra cost; plus they give you a free GPS unit. I didn't really need that since I usually travel solo and I prefer using my phone with Google Maps and Car Play.

That said, the reason I like Arnold Clark so much is that they take the time to explain everything to you. They go over the fine print and they make sure that you understand any potential fees and what you need to do. Their cars are always in good condition, and on both occasions I was upgraded at no extra cost. They really do provide excellent service and cars.

In addition, AC has two locations in Edinburgh; one at the airport, but another one in Sighthill, which is on the outskirts of Edinburgh. It's handy if you plan on staying in Edinburgh first before you head out into the rest of the country. That way you don't need to go all the way to the airport, but can just get a cab or bus to the Sighthill location and head out from there. That is what I did, and it was very convenient.

I had some B&B guests who were badly let down by Sixt when their car got a flat tyre.

Skyegirl's guest's experience is similar to one my friends had in Italy two years ago. They also rented a car from Sixt. As they were parking the car in the hill town we were staying they got a flat tire. Called Sixt. No spare tire and no one could/would come out to change the tire or swap the car. They were told to leave it. It was still there when we left the town 4 days later.