The Motability Scheme, which supplies cars to people with disabilities to enable mobility, has announced that it won’t be supplying cars from premium carmakers with immediate effect.
This means that it has removed Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz from its lists, as well as taking away any convertible or coupe models supplied by other manufacturers, saying that it was removing “higher-cost vehicles that sit outside the Scheme’s focus on essential, practical mobility”.
There has been media pressure on the scheme in recent months, with accusations that people were using mobility payments from the government to drive posh cars. There’s a cap on cars available through the scheme of £45,000 for combustion models and £55,000 for EVs that still carry a premium. There had been speculation that the chancellor would use the budget to announce changes to the scheme, which may still be on the cards.
Motability has clarified that cars ordered from the banned brands before 25 November will still be delivered, and that it would continue to support users who are already running the premium badged cars. It has also indicated that wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) from premium manufacturers, like the Mercedes Sprinter, would still be available. Just last week, Kia announced that it would be the first carmaker to provide a factory built WAV – its new PV5 WAV will be built alongside other models at its factory in Hwaseong, South Korea.
The announcement from Motability could be a blow to carmakers like DS, Polestar and Volvo who would likely consider themselves premium, but on the plus side they’ll still get to sell cars through the scheme. You can check out our list of the best cars to lease through Motability here, none of which are premium badged cars.
Motability also took the opportunity to announce that it is introducing targets to lease 50% British built cars by 2035, a massive increase on the numbers of UK vehicles currently bought by the outfit.
The target wouldn’t actually be possible at the moment – 800,000 vehicles are currently built in the UK each year, of which 100,000 meet Motability’s eligibility. It currently leases 300,000 cars a year. Even buying up a third of its fleet from UK sources would be a significant increase from the 22,000 Motability cars that are currently British built models.
There’s no indication from Motability as to how it’s going to encourage its customers to order British built cars, or indeed how it might encourage carmakers to build more Motability-suitable cars, but Nissan’s UK boss welcomed the opportunity to sell more cars through the scheme. The British-built number will include WAVs built by British-based converters and other cars that have been adapted by British businesses.
Nissan's Sunderland plant will certainly welcome news that Motability is introducing targets to buy British built cars 
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