EV skills gap for service & maintenance is a cause for concern!

The latest concern for the government, garages and consumers across the UK surrounding Electric Vehicles (EVs), is the lack of skills to perform servicing, maintenance and repair on these vehicles moving forward.

Despite the pressures placed on car manufacturers to achieve the 2030 ambitions set by the government, there seems to be no thought about the aftermarket for EVs and how garages will be able to upskill their workforce to cope with the demand.

According to the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), at the end of 2020 only 6.5% of the automotive sector was EV-ready – the IMI reported that this is leading to a lack in consumer confidence and a key reason why not everyone is convinced about the viability of EVs.

Despite this, the latest SMMT data reveals that battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for more than one in 10 (10.7%) new car registrations in June 2021, followed by 8.7% for traditional hybrids and 6.5% for plug-in-hybrids.

So, with consumers seemingly turning to a greener form of transport in recent months, what is the plan to get the UK garage workforce up to speed with EVs?

Time to ramp up EV skills training...

Although the evidence and need for training & upskilling the current UK garage workforce is obvious, putting the relevant training in place is going to be huge task.

IMI CEO Steve Nash commented: “The fact that our analysis shows such a big deficit in the EV skilled workforce should ring alarm bells for government, with its big ambitions for 2030. The recent House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report into the transition to zero-emission vehicles highlighted the need to train and retrain the workforce required to service the new car fleet. But highlighting the need and actually committing to investment in the upskilling are two very different things. And the current skills gap right across the UK economy, exacerbated by a combination of Covid-19 and Brexit is adding a further dimension to the challenge.”

The institute also added that for all those who are likely to work on EVs, the relevant training must be addressed as a matter of urgency, regardless of whether they are service and repair technicians or those working in the roadside recovery and blue light sectors.

EV servicing equipment to put your garage on the map!

If you are looking to get your EV servicing off to a great start, sourcing the right garage equipment is a necessary investment – here at Hofmann Megaplan, we can get your garage kitted out for every EV eventually.

Visit our full range of EV equipment online today or call our team on 01480 8-9-10-11 for more information on how we can help.