As the UK’s largest fleet owner, Motability Operations – a member of the Urban Mobility Partnership – leads the way on mass electric vehicle adoption. James Douglas, manufacturer and network partnership director, reveals how the Scheme is helping to ensure a seamless shift to EVs.

James Douglas, manufacturer and network partnership director at Motability Operations

Motability Operations, the organisation that delivers the Motability Scheme to over 750,000 disabled people across the UK, is working hard to ensure no one is left behind in the transition to electric. As part of our membership with the Urban Mobility Partnership, Motability Operations is working to ensure that accessibility and mobility for disabled people are integrated into multi-modal transport solutions, and will form a key part of the future of mobility.

After doubling our EV fleet in 2023, and with over 40,000 EVs now on the road and with 5,000 orders added to the pipeline in January alone, we are uniquely placed to make a difference and help the UK reach its net zero targets. Our ongoing transition to electric vehicles ensures that accessibility and sustainability can go hand-in-hand – a key tenant of the Urban Mobility Partnership’s mission.

The Scheme enables people in receipt of a qualifying mobility allowance to lease a vehicle from us. These allowances are agreed and awarded by the Government and customers to spend their allowance on leasing a vehicle which comes with the Scheme’s worry-free package including insurance, tyres, servicing and breakdown support. At the end of the lease a customer returns the vehicle to Motability Operations, who sell it back into the used car market at the best possible price. To keep our customers mobile now and in the future, we invest 100% of any profit made into ensuring access independent mobility.

I was delighted to join Motability Operations in the summer of 2023, as the manufacturer and network partnership director, to support the company deliver its dealer and manufacturer strategy as it navigates its journey to electric.

It is clear that the automotive industry is already shifting its production lines to electric, and availability of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK is reducing rapidly, so we are acting now to make the EV transition a reality for our customers.

The Motability Scheme is life-changing for so many disabled people and their families across the UK and it’s our responsibility to ensure we safeguard the future of the Scheme and make EVs affordable and accessible for our customers.

We’ve got a huge opportunity to supercharge the uptake of EVs in the UK and work with our OEM partners to grow our fleet, but we want to make sure our customers are fully supported through this process, and they have the right information available so they can make the switch.

We’re predicting that around 80% of our applications will be for EVs by 2030 and we’re seeing a shift in what our OEM partners are now producing. There’s longer range and affordable electric cars now on the Scheme and this is helping us grow our EV fleet every quarter. The Scheme is a great route to market for OEMs and this is helping them reach their own ZEV mandates.

The entrance into the UK market of new manufacturers with new automotive brands, is also increasing the availability and affordability of EVs for our customers and we are keen to provide our customers with as wide a choice as the market will allow.

Interestingly, the sheer size of our EV fleet isn’t its most defining feature, instead it’s the demographic of our customers and who is choosing to take an EV on the Scheme.  Unlike many other EV fleets, in the market which are largely driven by employees benefiting from company car tax incentives, our EV customer profile is different.

Compared to the national average, our EV customers are younger, more likely to be women, and are more likely to live in suburban areas. 75% of them are not in employment or retired, while more than half (52%) of them have a yearly household income of less than £30,000. The comparative affordability of an electric vehicle through the Motability Scheme also makes them a more attractive proposition for the mass market, so we expect to see faster growth.

Whilst the uptake of EVs through the Scheme already has been encouraging, the big challenge we’re working against is that the charging infrastructure is not evolving at the same pace and only half of our customers are able to charge at home We’ve also got ambitious targets to reach our net zero targets. To achieve net zero, we need 80% of all new applications to be for an EV by 2030 and 100% by 2035. By this time, we anticipate 95% of our total fleet will be electric. We’re confident we can achieve these targets and keep disabled people mobile as we continue to transition our fleet to electric.

To find solutions to this we’re working with industry, with local authorities and decision makers, and with technology and energy organisations to be the voice of our customers to raise awareness of the challenges and barriers they face in making the switch. If the EV transition can be equitable and consider the needs of our customers from the start, it will serve everyone better in the future.

Our membership of the Urban Mobility Partnership is a key part of this, providing a forum through which we can share insight with local authorities and other transport providers to ensure that the future of travel takes accessibility and our customer base into account.