One in five people in the UK reports a disability, and almost one in 10 new cars in the UK is bought on behalf of a disabled person.
The Motability Scheme, which the Motability charity oversees, has enabled millions of disabled people to lease a car and enjoy the freedom of driving.
With the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars approaching, there is a robust commercial and social case for ensuring that the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is inclusive for disabled people.
As more and more councils develop their strategies and local EV charge-point networks, we would encourage them to think about accessibility for disabled drivers.
Motability is working closely with the EV sector and with government to map out a pragmatic route forward, focusing initially on public charging.
Given the need to avoid expensive retrofitting of charge points that have already been installed when guidance catches up, we feel it is important for local authorities, installers and manufacturers of charging infrastructure to act early.
Our research shows that, without action, it will be difficult for millions of people to access charging.
Motability sponsored a report from the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC), which field tested the experience of disabled drivers with electric vehicles and identified a range of challenges.
For example, those with mobility or dexterity impairments struggled with the heavy weight of cables, the force required to attach connectors and the absence of dropped kerbs around charge points.
Moreover, the scale of the problem is potentially immense. Research commissioned by Motability estimates that, by 2035, up to 1.35 million drivers or passengers with a disability will be partially or wholly reliant on public charging infrastructure, which hasn’t been designed with their needs in mind.
As a result of these and other challenges, uptake of EVs among disabled drivers has been limited. This is supported by evidence from EV app and digital platform Zap-Map’s 2020 annual survey, which indicates that rates of disability among EV drivers are low compared with the proportion of disability in the UK population.
Research suggests that even countries ahead of the UK in respect of energy transition, such as the Netherlands, have not come up with standards or guidance focused on charging accessibility.
The USA has done a great deal in this space on a local level, but this intense amount of local regulation has hampered innovation in places.
Wireless charging is expected to be a more promising solution for disabled drivers, as it may remove the need to interact with a charge point at all. But the readiness of wireless technology for the marketplace, and its commercial viability, are still unproven.
We want to make it easy to understand what ‘accessible’ means for EV charge points, and to develop inclusive design solutions.
Over the next year, and in partnership with the Department for Transport, Motability is sponsoring accessible charging design standards through the British Standards Institution.
In the meantime, we have completed a significant piece of user engagement work in partnership with Designability, a disability and design charity, for which we worked with disabled people to define their requirements to charge.
The comprehensive report from this work is available on the Motability website. Please get in touch at [email protected] if you have any further questions.