Odd that he’s used The Times given that (as far as I know) it’s not one of the newspapers that has criticised the scheme? I don’t subscribe to The Times so have no idea what he’s said, but I doubt that many of the Neanderthal types who populate the comments section of many newspapers read it, so ignorance will still prevail regarding “free” cars etc
Having thought about it, there are two things that I think Motability should do;
1) They need to explain that the advance payment covers all the additional costs of each car, so someone driving a BMW i4 with an £8k advance payment is not being “subsidised by the taxpayer” any more than someone who is driving a Hyundai i10. Manufacturers are throwing vast discounts off EVs at fleet operators, as they see them as the only way to have half a chance of getting anywhere near their ZEV targets. Also, brands like BMW have far better residual values, and as depreciation is always the biggest cost of running a car, that’s why it makes sense to have such brands on the scheme.
2) As the Motability website, and all vehicle price details, are on a publicly available website, more should be done to show the total costs to the Motability customer of running the car. If someone buys a car privately using, say, a PCP plan, the totality of costs over the whole term (deposit + 36x monthly payment + interest costs + final payment if relevant) are shown. Many of the press and certainly the public comments simply quote the Advance Payment of the Motability car, thinking that’s the only cost. They either ignore, or are unaware of, the sacrificed benefits. I’d like to see a box on each cars details showing what the “total cost” is over a 3 year lease (advance payment + sacrificed benefits) to make people realise just how much they cost. As an example, for a PIP recipient, the £8k BMW, once sacrificed PIP benefits are added, would show “This car will cost you £20,000 (£8k AP plus £12k sacrificed benefits) over 36 months”. This would go a big way to helping correct all the nonsense and half truths in the media. Of course, it might make some Motability customers balk at just how much their cars are really costing them as well!