News & Features

Access to EV

Posted in General News on Thursday, September 22nd, 2022

The government is banning the sale of new petrol and diesel car in 2030. Have you thought how this will affect you? The ban will affect everybody including disabled motorists. The ban is less than eight years away so if you haven’t thought about it already now is the time to do so.

More and more electric vehicles are coming to market all the time and battery technology has come a long way since the first EVs hit the roads. You might have ruled out an EV in the past, but there might be something that now suits your needs. It’s worth doing some research as it will be something you will have to think about in the near future.

Over the past few years you will have read about several EV projects that DMUK has been involved in and the worrying news that the public charging infrastructure is completely inaccessible to many disabled motorists. It is thought that roughly 40% of households will not have the facilities and access at their home to have an at home charging point installed, so will be reliant on public charging infrastructure. With the fastest rapid charge taking at least 20 minutes, a big proportion of the populations will have to completely rethink refuelling - or what will be the new normal - re-charging! It won’t be a case of just popping to the local petrol station while running another errand or going to work, charging will be the reason for the journey. The way in which we think about getting fuel for our vehicles will completely change.

DMUK Access to EV


DMUK has been granted a small amount of funding from the Lottery to research the preparedness of disabled people for the switch over to EVs. We will be conducting a survey, running from May to September, asking for your thoughts on EVs and charging infrastructure. We want to know what your opinions and worries surrounding EVs and charging so we can plan our campaigning work accordingly. This project will inform DMUK’s involvement with the EV switch over and provide valuable data going forward to show government and business what needs to be addressed to make sure that EVs and charging are accessible for all.

The survey has now closed and we are calculating the results.
 

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Edmund Hobby's Gravatar
Edmund Hobby

Thursday, May, 19th, 2022

I am fortunate ? in that I have a car leased from Motability. EV's are available some with no upfront payment. When I changed at the back end of 2020, I could instead of the Renault Clio I chose ,had an Hybrid but at the loss of some boot space . Or the smaller Zoe. Again being fortunate Motability apparently pay for the charging point if you have as we do your own driveway. Having watched several programs on the difficulty of accessing public charging points, if travelling any distance, I am concerned that when my Clio is due for replacement in 2023, pressure might be to have an EV. Perhaps by then the public chargung point difficulty might have been sorted????????Out of choice so far I would prefer a Hybrid.

Roger Warner's Gravatar
Roger Warner

Thursday, June, 23rd, 2022

Good to see some progress on this serious issue. I have a YouTube channel where I make videos of me trying to charge my EV from my wheelchair WARNER’S WHEELING ABOUT https://youtube.com/channel/UCgyRmQNAArecn0c48O21OFQ Website https://warnerswheelingabout.com/ Facebook UK’s Public EV Charge Network - Accessibility Campaign to improve disabled access to the public EV charge network. https://www.facebook.com/groups/731781191487447/

Juliet Barrett's Gravatar
Juliet Barrett

Thursday, September, 22nd, 2022

I am a Motability customer and my car is due for renewal in 2023. I currently have a Kia Niro hybrid which I've been very happy with. My scooter fits in the boot and I can get in and out of the car without too much trouble. I was hoping to change for the electric version next year but they have taken Kia off motability. My only complaint would be the fuel consumption is not as good as I'd hoped. Looking through the options online for Motability recently, the choice of electric cars that will fit a mobility scooter in the boot, that are not too low for me or that I can afford are virtually none. I'm hoping that there will be a little more choice by next year.