I don’t think we should be complaining about Motability in any part of the current situation, their hands are tied and they’re at the mercy of the manufacturers. Their entire business model is under threat the longer this persists, they are reliant on manufacturers selling cheap to take up excess capacity and stock. Without that excess there’s no business reason to sell cheap cars to Motability. This whole situation is down to manufacturers failing to plan ahead or change their just in time supply chain, they just assumed that the chip manufacturers would be able to start churning out chips at the drop of a hat when in fact they had reconfigured their lines to other products in order to keep working.
Whilst I agree with your final point about manufacturers messing up chip supply Peter, I believe that your comments about the Motability model are wide of the mark.
It is not the case that manufacturers just use Motability to take up excess capacity and stock. In fact the vast majority of manufacturers never have excess stock as most cars nowadays are built to order, not speculatively. Even when dealers have cars in stock, they are often reluctant to let them go to Motability customers, preferring to get the customer to make a factory order! It is also quite common for new cars to appear on the Motability scheme within a few months of being launched when retail demand is still very high. All businesses rely on turnover. Whilst they make less money per Motability sale than per retail sale, all the Motability sales add up to a sizeable turnover.
In the current climate, where demand is exceeding supply, manufacturers can pick and choose which segments they prioritise and it is no surprise that Motability sales will fall by the wayside. However, whilst the chip shortage is undoubtedly responsible for the majority of the cull in vehicle choice, I can’t help but feel that there are other factors at play here and we may be seeing a repositioning of the scheme. I sincerely hope that I am wrong, but only time will tell.