It's shocking to hear that the shift to EVs could result in a massive reduction of mechanics with the training and skills to work on the high-voltage vehicles. Auto mechanics are already in short supply, and this change will only make the situation worse, and have some experts concerned about safety and costs in the future.
“One is just the convenience issue of people having to go a lot further than they would want to go to find somebody who’s appropriately qualified to do the work,” said Steve Nash, CEO of IMI.
“The other one is potentially cost because, of course, the more demand and the less people there are around [to work on the vehicles] ... that could affect the cost of servicing as well.”
Safety is another worry. “That’s always the concern … that if the work is there, and there aren’t the people to do it, then certain people will take a risk — and it genuinely is a risk,” Nash said.
“Some of these vehicles are operating on anything up to sort of 800 volts of direct current … I mean, you don’t need anything like that to be lethal, of course,” he added.
Fundamentally, electric vehicles are totally different to internal combustion engine vehicles. So somebody who has spent their life working on internal combustion engines can’t simply make the switch from one to the other. And there are inherent risks involved in that because ... electrified vehicles operate at very high voltages.
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