I think that the salesman has got the wrong end of the stick regarding what Motability have been saying to some dealership chains, but I know what he’s (wrongly) referring to.
I posted a few weeks ago that a Dealer Principal told me that he attended a meeting at Motability HQ recently and was told that Motability are becoming very concerned about the nationwide and ongoing problems with residual values of EVs, and their future exposure to this. As we know, Motability have been pushing customers towards EVs for a few years now, and whilst take up still remains relatively low (as a percentage of the total fleet) it’s now a big number in actual terms.
I might have this figure slightly wrong, as I’m doing it from memory from a quote I read recently from Motability Operations, but every 1% movement in used car prices affects them to the tune of around £122m. As has been widely reported, the used EV market is dreadful at present. Selling sufficient new EVs is proving to be enough of a challenge, but demand for second hand EVs just isn’t there and dealers and Motability are very concerned about it. Motability are trying to hedge against their future exposure to the problematic used EV market by raising APs. They have also said that there are more AP increases to come because of this issue. Unfortunately, I don’t think that Motability will just whack up the APs on EVs (where the problem is), but will do it across the board to lessen the blow on individual cars.
This obviously poses the question as to why Motability are still really pushing EVs. As kezo has said, APs are set by Motability Operations, as they are calculated based on the purchase price discounts that they are offered from the manufacturers. At present, manufacturers are offering fleet operators (such as Motability) big discounts on EVs as they are struggling to sell them to private customers so are using fleet companies to meet their targets.
