Our E-WAVs are now Available! Click Here
With the recent news that all new petrol and diesel cars will be banned by 2030 in the UK, we are watching the developing electric vehicle market closely.
If you read our summary below – you’ll see that as of January 2022 the options for electric wheelchair vehicles are still quite limited but are slowly improving. We are hoping that the options for EV WAVs will now start to improve… bookmark this page or sign up to our update service below and we’ll keep you updated.
Electric WAVs
A question we are being asked more and more frequently is “do you have any electric or hybrid wheelchair accessible vehicles for sale or hire?”
The car industry is changing rapidly and electric or hybrid vehicles are increasingly common, most manufacturers have at least one electric vehicle model available, or available in the next 12 months. Some manufacturers ONLY make electric vehicles Tesla being the well know example.
Over the next decade electric vehicles may well be the most popular vehicle type on the roads.
Is there an electric WAV?
As you’d expect WAV’s are slowly following the lead made by standard cars and are slowly transitioning over to an electric future, however it hasn’t been quite as fast as standard cars.
There are a couple of * Electric wheelchair accessible vehicle for the UK Market and available through WavsGB – the most common being the Citroen e-Berlingo from GM Coachworks.
We’ve no doubt that over the next year or two we’ll start to see even more electric wheelchair vehicles come onto the market.. and in turn trickle through to the used WAV market.
The reason there isn’t more of an electric revolution happening in the wheelchair accessible car market may be down to a whole host of reasons including demand and infrastructure – but a large factor in the slow uptake is the design of the vehicles themselves.
Currently most electric vehicle manufacturers are putting the batteries under the floor – this is great for standard cars as it reduces the centre of gravity. For wheelchair vehicles having the batteries under the floor can represent a problem as most WAVs have the floor lowered to accommodate the wheelchair. Lowered floor = less room for batteries.
Weight may also be a factor, WAVs with their ramps, lifts and winches can add to the overall weight of the vehicle and make it heavier than a standard car. With a heavier car comes reduced journey range for the batteries.
Are there any Hybrid WAVs?
At the moment there are no hybrid WAVS, the design limitations of WAVs seems to be a challenge for the designers to be able to fit, the electric motor, engine and wheelchir conversion into the available architecture of the vehicle.
When will there be more electric wheelchair cars available for sale?
We expect a better range of electric wheelchair vehicles to be with us over the next couple of years. Renault already have an electric version of the Kangoo (The Renault Kangoo Z.E.) which can be converted for wheelchair use – so it’s likely that will be on the roads soon.
As with everything – demand will fuel the supply. Wheelchair users and their families will definitely be looking for electric alternatives and the manufactures will no-doubt be happy to oblige.
WavsGB sell used wheelchair accessible vehicles, and we’re hoping to offer a limited range of electric WAVs very soon.
Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles for sale*Correct at time of article Jan 2022
