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Update;
Spoke to a great Motability Accredited Sales Assistant at Vindis Cambridge to enquire about build times on the Enyaq and while doing, so he mentioned that Skoda themselves are currently offering £500 to Motability customers towards AP’S ordering Enyaqs (just the 85 edition iirc) before the end of September.
Foundation wouldn’t budge on upping the grant to accommodate more of the NCP and/or Skoda offer despite pleading about living rurally and the need for the greater range of the 85 edition over the 50 edition but they stuck firm and in fact said if we didn’t order a car from their list on the award letter using the grant, that the order would be immediately cancelled by them.
We dispensed with the grant and went ahead with our own order with the NCP plus the £500 from Skoda, so we now only have to come up with £250 before we pick up our 85 Edition which is currently looking to be on a ’25 plate in March.
Interestingly, our dealer (Group 1 Norwich) when we asked about their sales of Enyaqs said they hardly sell any to retail customers, they’re mostly sold as hire/fleet cars and to Motability customers.
2019 BMW X2 sDrive20i
Sapphire BlackI would make the argument if you genuinely can’t make an EV work. If you can’t have a home charger you could argue that you’d be too worried about charging because there are next to no or few disabled access charging places. For some disabled drivers public eV charging could be a real nightmare.
Charging isn’t much of an issue tbh, we have a driveway and our home is housing association so I’m pretty sure they’d be fine with a charger being installed. We have a gridserve (£££) a few miles away and a couple of chargers at a BP (££££) a couple of miles the other way if we need them. I’m a bit more on board with the idea of the EV, even though petrol and diesel are way more convenient and i much prefer them, I need to save some money and if I can make any savings with charging over refuelling then that works out great, though I’m also wary of home charging being inadequate/not cost effective but I think OVO have some sort of tariff that would be suitable and not a total wallet drainer.
Wife is resistant to change in general (she is somewhat Autistic) whereas I’m a bit more open to change with the right information available (ADHD/possible Autism too).
So I don’t really mind so long as we’re not giving up her mobility PIP money on something she has little choice over but is somewhat forced to accept because of restrictive grant terms.
Being told by foundation when enquiring that her comfort was “more of a want” and “not something we really consider” was another line that’s stuck with me.
2019 BMW X2 sDrive20i
Sapphire BlackThanks @BigDave
Didn’t even know there were such options, we don’t have any particular affinity to such organisations, especially any that would consider helping in such a way, I’ll definitely have to bear that route in mind, thanks for the info.
2019 BMW X2 sDrive20i
Sapphire BlackMy Wife is nearing the end of her second Motability lease at the end of November, her first was a Volvo V40cc in 2017 which we self funded, then the current car, a BMW X2 sDrive20i which the foundation funded. We were able to extend the lease in 2022 at Motability Operation’s suggestion as nothing on the scheme at the time seemed a better option, the seat height, heated seats and general ride comfort have been spot on.
Now we’re not able to extend the X2’s lease further (understandable) and reached out to the foundation again to see if they’d fund her next car (I’ve been her full time at-home carer since 2020 so only UC and PIP daily living as income).
She has been awarded the £749 grant and given a list of 10 EV’s to use it on. This was a week after we were notified the application was successful, but no award documentation was uploaded for nearly a week until we enquired about it, then within minutes of the call it was there. I assume they just forgot but they didn’t own it, just said “Oh well it should be there, we’ll look in to it and you should see it within the hour”.
The favourite (best of the situation, but I actually quite like it) on the list is the Skoda Enyaq 50 Edition and we’re test driving one tomorrow, but we’re left with (potentially) only the rest of the week to decide to order it in case the AP goes up too much next week and we then can’t cover it with the maximum 50% of the new car payment on top.
We could potentially ask if foundation will up the grant to allow us to use the NCP alongside it for the Enyaq 85 edition, better range and (maybe) better resale value, we live rurally and have to use a-roads for most of our journeys so that may be taken in to account?
Another option is to wait and if the AP’s do go up too much to use grant + NCP, forgo the grant and go in with the NCP and save up the remainder ourselves in the meantime. That’s assuming build times are as long as they have been or there aren’t any similar models in stock, but I know this isn’t the best plan and pretty much entirely relies on a long wait time.
Additonal info; I basically do the bulk of the driving, Wife’s neck can get so stiff she can’t turn it properly so she doesn’t like to drive much any more. I take care of getting the car serviced and the associated admin related to the car on her behalf. She has Hypermobile EDS, issues with the discs in her neck and doesn’t really like dealing with it all so leaves it to me to sort out where she can. She really doesn’t want us to have an EV, would be fine with a hybrid but it seems we have little choice now, foundation flat out told us they’re not prepared to fund a petrol or even a hybrid.
2019 BMW X2 sDrive20i
Sapphire Black
