“When you go from manual to automatic, your life is changed, and now going from a petrol engine to an electric engine, my life has changed even more.” Paralympian GB wheelchair basketball player Robyn Love is driving an electric car for the first time - one of 735,000 motorists with disabilities in the largest vehicle fleet in Europe of its type who must be persuaded to make the switch from petrol and diesel. The Ayr-born athlete was test driving an adapted Ford Mustang Mach-E during an electric vehicles (EVs) showcase staged by Motability Operations (MO), which provides the largest number of adapted and wheelchair-accessible vehicles for people with disabilities in the continent.
Only 65,000 of MO’s 800,000 customers - one in 12 - have moved to EVs and joined MO’s electric fleet - the UK’s largest - including 5,000 of its 84,000 customers in Scotland. Taking to the former motor racing circuit at the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston in Edinburgh shortly after returning from her third Paralympics in Paris, Ms Love was immediately won over - but she also highlighted a key hurdle faced by half of MO’s customers. She said: “It’s my first time driving an EV and it’s so smooth - I didn’t quite appreciate how quiet and relaxing it is.
“Electric to me means luxury because I always thought it was out of my grasp - a bit expensive - but with the drive [towards] electric vehicles and the importance to the environment, it seems the luxury of electric is becoming m.