Thinking about it, you could argue that Motability are already providing some incentive towards electric or part electric vehicles, as they seem to be exempt from the normal bhp and price caps. The Volvo Recharge PHEV has come back on the scheme today. It’s over 250 bhp and with metallic paint thrown in that’s a car worth over £43k. Yes, the AP is high (£5,499 for the Inscription Pro) but comparatively that’s much better value than the petrol XC40’s.
People often forget that the actual cost to the customer of running a car through Motability is the AP plus optional extras plus (and this is the important part) around £10k in sacrificed benefits. There are many petrol and diesel cars of around £25k with AP’s of around £2k and £30k cars at around £3k AP. Once you factor in the cost of the sacrificed benefits that’s an outlay of £12k or £13k, which is 48% and 43% respectively of the price of the car. The XC40 recharge will cost £15.5k (£5,499 AP plus £10k sacrificed benefits) which is just 36% of the price of the car.
As a general point, people often balk at cars with high AP’s (as evidenced in the threads showing old price lists when you could get Range Rovers etc) but the fact is that, as a rule, the more expensive the car, the better the deal is, as the same £10k sacrificed benefit applies whether you get a zero AP city car or the £43k Volvo. Those choosing some zero AP cars could be paying over 60% of the cost of the car!