The Peugeot 2008 1.2 EAT8 auto Allure at £799 compares to the Peugeot e-2008 Allure at £1999
The OTR cost of the Petrol 2008 in question is £25,100 The OTR cost of the Electric 2008 in question is £30,300 +£3500 Grant = £33,800 I don’t believe it’s down to a moral responsibility, more mathematics. Perhaps the answer does not lie at the door of Motability but the manufacturer, maybe the question should be how can Peugeot justify charging £8700 more for an electric car?
This is a good point to tackle because we know that the EV’s batteries are under $150 per kWh, so…
$150 x 50 (on a e-2008) = $7500 for the battery pack, x 0.78 to change it to £ = 5850 + VAT = £7020.
So once you compare engines to electric motors/BMS/etc., that ballpark £8700 isn’t a figure that is too far from unreasonable. Battery cost will reduce each year so hopefully the cars become cheaper as a result, or, the battery capacity increases for similar cost (BMW i3, Renault Zoe).
For the recyclability question on the lithium ion batteries, they do get reused as power banks currently, but lithium batteries can also technically be recycled, they now contain far less cobalt too which will help. My large wheelchair runs on recycled lithium iron phosphate batteries as an example (just need to be careful not to melt the motors going uphill too fast).