Updated: 10:43 EDT, 3 April 2025
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Motorists can pick up a second-hand bargains if they buy 'nearly-new' used electric cars that were originally acquired through the Motability scheme.
Drivers can save up to £3,000 on year-old electric and plug-in hybrid cars originally leased by people with disabilities in exchange for mobility allowances, new research has found.
Automotive magazine What Car? said these cars are being listed for 14 per cent below typical average used prices, presenting huge value for money to buyers.
While leases via the scheme typically last for three to five years, there are presently attractively-priced one and two-year old ex-Motability EVs on the market, due to a massive surge in the number of EVs leased via the scheme in the past 18 months.
The study comes after a Daily Mail investigation found that Motability Operations, the company behind the Motability charity, has handed out over £500million in taxpayers’ cash in sweeteners to benefits claimants to increase take-up.
It also follows This is Money revealing last year that EV makers were aggressively targeting the Motability market to meet the Government’s stringent electric car sales targets.
New findings from What Car? show that Motability customers can save up to £3,000 on nearly new and used electric and plug-in hybrid cars
What Car? found six ex-Motability cars aged two years old or less online, with savings of up to £2,904 on the recommended prices for these EVs or PHEVs, by looking at Motability specialist CMW Cars and Auto Trader listings.
One advert for a 2024 Vauxhall Combo Life Electric with 4,000 miles for £18,000 was nearly £3,000 less than valuation tools suggest.
Another finding was an 11,000-mile Volkswagen Tiguan plug-in hybrid (PHEV) for £26,995 - some £2,831 cheaper than what experts said a car of this type, age and mileage is worth.
Other ex-Motability cars for sale at less than their car valuation book price included a BYD Atto 3 (£144 saving), Citroën e-C4 (£494 saving), Peugeot e-2008 (£1,314 saving) and a Peugeot e-Rifter (£683 saving).
What Car? Consumer editor, Claire Evans, said: 'Our research shows that there has been a breakdown in helping Motability Scheme users transition to EVs.
'While that provides some appealing bargains for secondhand car buyers, far more needs to be done to ensure less mobile drivers aren’t left behind in the transition to electric vehicles.'
A 2024 Vauxhall Combo Life Electric with 4000 miles was listed for £18,000 – nearly £3000 less than valuation tools suggest
Other ex-Motability cars for sale at less than their car valuation book price included a BYD Atto 3 (£144 saving) - one of the lowest savings available but the car itself is only £22,943
The This is Money Motoring Club is designed to make car ownership cheaper and simpler for This is Money and MailOnline readers.
Powered by MotorEasy it's the place to keep on top of tax, MOTs and servicing - and manage important documents and receipts that keep your car’s value.
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To celebrate the Motoring Club launch, there is a special prize draw exclusively for members. Select Car Leasing is providing a free six-month lease on a Nissan Qashqai.
In addition, all new members will receive a one-off gift of £20 in reward vouchers to spend.
> Find out more about the Motoring Club and how to win
More than 800,000 people use the Motability Scheme, and 70,000 EVs were leased via it in the 2023/24 financial year - double the number in the previous period.
However, because around 50 per cent of Motability users are estimated to not have a driveway or accessibility to an EV home charger, these users often end up relying on the public charging network, which is woefully inadequate for disabled people or those with mobility challenges.
Disability groups have slammed the UK’s charging network for this failure.
According to the 2023 Euan’s Guide Access Survey supported by Motability Operations, 75 per cent of disabled people with experience of public electric charging points say accessibility is very bad or bad.
Of the 6,000-plus survey participants, 38 per cent said they would not consider having an electric vehicle, with many comments suggesting that disabled people believe the infrastructure isn’t viable, and that many public charging points are inaccessible.
Because of this issue, many EVs are handed back early, What Car? explains. This is why so many are currently available for lower-than-average prices well before a typical lease period is due to expire.
Guy Pigounakis, commercial director of MG UK, told This is Money how the Motability market has been a key target for EV manufacturers needing to hit ZEV targets
The huge increase in Motability EV uptake as manufacturers need to hit sales targets
Last year, we revealed that the Motability market was one of the key tactics used by under pressure car makers to artificially increase EV sales in order to hit the Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate target of a 22 per cent share of deliveries.
Guy Pigounakis, commercial director of MG UK told This is Money exclusively: 'In terms of where the opportunities lie and where people are exploiting the market, Motability is a huge, huge market. And it's growing massively'.
In fact, by mid-2024 sales had increased 83 per cent year on year.
Motability responds well to aggressive positioning because customers typically want the best financial deal they can get, Guy said: 'Every manufacturer is aggressively positioning their cars with very low advance payments to try and get people to choose an EV over petrol or diesel.
'You're seeing manufacturers offering huge discounts'.
In 2024 a record 815,000 claimants made use of the Motability scheme, which has a fleet value of £14 billion
In March, a Daily Mail investigation revealed that Motability Operations, the company behind the Motability charity. is sitting on a surplus of £4billion of taxpayers' money.
The scheme is a privately company owned by Barclays, HSBC, Natwest and Lloyds.
Last year, a record 815,000 claimants made use of the Motability scheme - an astonishing increase of more than 170,000 customers in just 12 months thanks to a surge in people claiming disability benefits.
To qualify for a Motability vehicle, the prospective customer must be in receipt of benefits for a disability or illness in the form of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or the Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
Those qualifying for the scheme can exchange their mobility allowance for a new car/
But PIP mobility claimants do not have to have a physical disability to qualify for a Motability vehicle; claimants can cite mental health conditions, ADHD, Munchausen Syndrome or obesity all count.
And thousands of these claimants would also be eligible for a Motability vehicle – which is why it’s likely that this scheme has seen record numbers of customers in the last year.
Another Daily Mail investigation found Motability paid £540.9million out in 'new vehicle payments' to 748,000 people since 2022 – sweeteners to benefit claimants to entice them to buy new cars in the form of £750 cash.
The scheme's new vehicle payment – which ran from 2022 until January this year – helped it increase its customer base by 170,000 last year to the record-high of 815,000.
This meant that around one in five of all new cars in Britain were purchased using it.
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