Reply To: Hoist suitable EV’s / Hybrid

#314682
cherie
Participant

    Hi. Sadly very little expertise by car dealers. If you go on Des Gosling’s  website (based in Derby) they list different types of hoists and which cars they will fit into. They also have loads of YouTube videos showing different types of hoists in different cars.
    My experience (4 different cars fitted with hoists) is that I had to do a lot of research and then get the adaptation installers to listen to me. Best suppliers of hoists have been Autochair and Brig-Ayd (now called Mobility in Motion).
    The issues for you will be a) is it for a wheelchair or a scooter; b) do you want to store it vertically or horizontally; do you want to keep the back seats up (or can you cope if they’re down)?
    I had a 40kg LM hoist fitted in my previous car – Citroen C3Aircross. This is for my powerchair. I did not want brackets fitted to the chair so it just had a carabiner attached to lift it from one of the struts on the chair. (Bracket aversion is because if I change scooter/chair I would have to pay for brackets again).
    I am about to have a much more versatile better folding hoist (Brig-Ayd 40kg). This means that the boom won’t be blocking my rear view any more.
    I am about to have a Kia Niro Hybrid which has more room.
    Some of the installers (every region has their own installer) are better than others in terms of giving you advice. But do your research and find the hoist that is best for you. You can also choose a different installer if you want.
    The suppliers have to develop “installation Kia” for each new model and so they haven’t all got kits for every car. There also seemed to be a difficulty with EVs on some cars.

    I have always had to re-check info. Definitely car sales reps don’t know. The Motability website seem to think all the dealership sales reps are Motability aware – sadly not true.
    Good luck!