EV owners may face steeper than expected repair and warranty expenses as well as lengthy wait times for repairs because there are not enough service technicians and mechanics able to service EVs, according to a report by Reuters.
The shortage of EV technicians comes from the expense, danger, and financial uncertainty currently involved in EV repair service, the Reuters research shows.
Many knowledgeable sources in the auto repair and technical training industries assert that EV costs will only be made viable if a large number of independently owned EV repair shops start up. Dealer repair facilities are too expensive as well as too few and far between to viably cut repair costs or shorten waiting times.
However, the obstacles to small, numerous independent EV repair shops appear difficult to overcome, Reuters reports. The equipment to outfit a repair shop for EV service can cost tens of thousands of dollars, in excess of $30,000 in some European locations, while the currently low number of EVs in operation makes recouping this outlay difficult.
The repair process can also be fatally dangerous, with technicians routinely close to 400-volt and 800-volt systems capable of instantly killing them if an error exposes them to a jolt of current. Runaway EV battery fires raise the chances of massive property damage or destruction if one occurs inside the repair facility.
Reuters reports many mechanics choose not to offer EV service for the reasons mentioned above. Shortages of EV technicians could amount to 25,000 in England and 9,000 in Australia by 2030 to 2032, while the U.S. needs 80,000 electricians per year by 2031. Not all of the American electricians will be EV technicians, but EV techs and charger installation personnel are included in the number.
Various foundations and automotive professional organizations are attempting to prod governments into allocating tens of millions of tax dollars to train EV technicians. However, U.S. Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation executive director Nicholas Wyman remarked that “If you’re waiting for the (U.S.) government to take action, you’ll be waiting a freaking long time.”
GM EV models
GM is currently working toward realizing its plan to boost its EV production and sales in North America and China to 1 million EV units annually by 2025. The same year is also targeted by The General as the deadline for an intended launch of 30 EV models globally.
CEO Mary Barra says that the automaker is “transitioning to an all-electric portfolio from a position of strength and we’re focused on growth,” and its efforts continue toward “rapidly building a competitive advantage in batteries, software, vehicle integration, manufacturing and customer experience.”
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM EV news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Not only are the technicians an investment, they are a requirement for GM. I think its now 2 techs per dealership required?
Also, lets not forget all of the mandatory special tools that GM drop ships and charges the dealers for. Battery powertrain tables, motor rotor pullers, battery balancing equipment. Plus they have to have vehicle lifts with enough lifting capacity for EVs (especially those 9000lb+ ones).
And, don’t forget the requirement for a forklift with a very high capacity lift requirement. They must be able to hoist 4250lbs at 48in load center, which places dealers to buy a 9,000lbs+ capacity machine in order to meet the 4250lbs at 48in load center requirement. The one we ordered was over $65,000. And we have 2 stores so $130,000 just in forklifts to load and unload batteries off the carrier trucks, and then to use them to move the batteries around in the shop from the crate to the battery powertrain table, and load the old ones back into the crate.
Oh, and you CAN NOT leave the battery crates outside. They can’t get wet, no snow on them, etc. so if you don’t have extra storage room, you end up tying up a tech’s flat stall or their lift to store the battery until the carrier can pick up the core.
Correct, at least 2 techs fully trained on Hybrid/EV here in Canada too. Some GM dealerships have as many as 6.
In addition to the costs associated with the supporting infrastructure, the investment in training is significant on the part of the dealerships for live Instructor Led Training (ILT), Virtual Classroom Training (VCT) and the other associated online Video On Demand (VOD), Web Based Training (WBT) and more.
Let’s not forget, the significant investment on the part of the technicians to complete many (except for the ILT & VCT) courses, outside of the workplace hours.
FWIW, my training history currently lists 81 Hybrid/EV training related courses to date, including the Ultium, Blazer EV, Silverado EV and Hummer EV online courses.
Training is never ending, with close to 900 courses completed to date, not including those through independent trainers that include another 10 or more Hybrid/EV courses.
“EV owners may face steeper than expected repair and warranty expenses”. If it’s under warranty where is the owner expense?
Correction, “400 and 800 volt” not watt.
Could? Already is.
Lack of tech are delaying people getting ICE vehicles into dealers. Parts shortages are delaying repairs and increasing costs.
Price of parts has skyrocketed.
If UAW people want more money become a dealer tech and be proficient. Iknow a number ofbthem making six figures.
They also seem to be prioritizing where they can make the most. At first I was told 4 weeks to get in but when they diagnosed a 3700 repair bill they got it in the next week…LOL…gotta love it…luckily my insurance paid most of it. Dealer diagnosed by Monday, insurance saw on Tuesday and cut check by EOD, dealer ordered parts on Wed and had parts by Friday luckily all were in stock, Dealer done by following Wed and out the door…so about 1 week from time of parts ordered to take the car home. Cash speaks volumes.
Remember around a decade ago, when GM *REQUIRED* all their dealers to remodel their facilities to have a common corporate look?
I directly know one place that spent over $1 million on one location. For a nicer waiting room and that front entrance (just in case I didn’t know it was still a dealership). Will they get to spend that, again, to service the limited market of electrics?
Academic lunatics decided to put every child on the college path 30 plus years ago. We desperately a vocational program kids could enter in the 9th grade. They could come out of high school and go into good paying jobs. People don’t know how screwed we are as a country. The store I work in, 90% of the technicians will retire in the next 5 years. God help us in the event of a war. Who will take care of the military maintenance. We have been dismantled from within.
Agreed. When I was in HS I went to our 2 year local HS Tech program called BOCES. I wound up in the IT area but it offered everything from electrician, heating and cooling, auto body, cosmetology, nursing…and still does….but college being sold was the wrong thing for those especially not cut out for it….for me it worked but I see nephews and nieces stumbling in life. But I still consider it a failed factor related to where it ALL starts at home for guidance and ones surroundings!
Agree, back in the 60’s and 70’s, our schools directed the kids with good grades toward college prep and the kids (boys) with poor grades or behavior issues toward industrial arts. I guess the girls who weren’t college material went secretarial. Lately, they try to push all kids toward college even if industry would be a better choice and those kids struggle or drop out.
I recommend letting the owner buy the factory service manuals for their electric vehicles and do their own minor servicing, then when the warranty expires, the owners can do anything to their EVs. I buy the GM service manuals for all my GM vehicles at Helm, Inc. since 1975. If I buy my first EV, I will buy the service manuals, too.
I recommend rhe service manual of all vehicles coming alongside withe user manual. Most repairs arent hard.
I’ll pass on doing my own EV repairs. The risk of electrocution doesn’t sit well with me.
Good luck with purchasing the SM for a current MY vehicle. While it’s been a good idea historically, service manuals are often not available these days ,until several years after production begins, if at all.
Taking a Chevrolet Bolt as an example, Helm now lists SM availability for 2017 only.
Then there is the need for special tools, for many procedures that were once routine and possible for “Backyard Bob” to handle, with information on hand. There are many very expensive mistakes awaiting the unsuspecting.
Without SI, a capable scan tool and expertise, some once routine service procedures and repairs will catch folks out and this applies to all vehicle manufacturer’s systems.
The value of service information for the owner with some mechanical skills, will be the ability to identify service and repair limitations, in the absence of tooling.
Examples: Many have found that pushing back caliper pistons on ICE and EVs with Electric Park Brake (EPB), without being in the service mode for some vehicles and battery disconnected for others, results in costly component failures. ICE and EV braking systems can exercise caliper pistons during the re-calibration process, catching out folks. There is the potential to pinch fingers and blow out the pistons completely.
The same is true for vehicles with Integrated Braking Controls. “No problem” thinks Bubba, when shoving those front caliper pistons back into their bores, until he destroys components that cost $$K!
Again, going forward, arming oneself with service manual will be useful for some small procedures, but will serve well to understand where some procedures simply cannot be completed without special tools, to avoid costly mistakes.
Even if you had the manual, you don’t have the equipment needed, or access to programming. Your confidence level far exceeds your knowledge of this subject.
Scratching your head over electrical problems and chasing wiring problems takes a lot of patience plus skill. Not a job that suits many.
GM EV tech here, their solution is to tier their EV certification. Starting this month, “EV Experts” (techs with what used to be considered gold certification) will be able to service all systems short of internal drive and battery repairs (those can only be completed by “EV masters”). I am sure this was due to emmense push back from dealers not wanting to pay/spend what it would take to train or hire techs that had completed the full training. I will admit, it does seem a bit silly to require needing EV certification to do trim repairs or programming events, but GM didn’t make this a secret, they had been telling dealers this was how it was going to be years before it was an issue.
Geezer enough here to remember when we finally got electronic fuel injection in everyday vehicles. Was pushed as some sort of black magic that nobody could understand, when it was zero comparison easier to work with than the truly awful Quadrajets and gobs of hoses/valves that we had before.
Now, it is clear one HAS to know what they’re doing around the electrics, just for the non-zero chance of killing oneself or lighting off a power pack fire. But yeah it shouldn’t require a specialist to change a trim piece.
Part of the reason for not allowing untrained technicians to perform some routine repairs, stems from increased levels of systems integration. High voltage management just took it to another level.
It is quite possible that what was once a fairly simple procedure may now cross over into High Voltage territory. The simplest/safest bet is to nix any work on EVs for those with out the requisite training, even though it may “seem a bit silly”.
Until the introduction if the Ultium platform vehicles with Ultify controls systems, most EV components were standalone.
That is no longer the situation with more highly integrated systems across all platforms.
Most Hybrid/EVs when shut down, open the contactors leaving systems external to the HV battery relatively safe, once given time to deplete the capacitors and verify with LDL testing.
With the LYRIQ and other Ultium systems, that is not the situation. With Electronic Battery System Management (EBSM) the contactors may remain closed to charge the 12 volt battery.
That could easily catch an unsuspecting technician out, who doesn’t realize that the 12 volt battery voltage should be measured to ensure EBSM mode has ended, before performing some procedures.
How many non-EV techs in your shop will know that without training?
Next, with Blazer, Silverado and others going forward, we have Passive Power Mode.
What, no start button?!! Right. If a tech hasn’t completed the training, they will not be aware that there is no “start” button because there’s no engine to start and control of the various propulsion and service modes is different. There could be a few surprises there for the untrained.
So yes, while it might “seem a bit silly”, by creating a blanket rule there can be no argument if it all goes sideways when an untrained technician tackles a procedure.
Perhaps this writer might want to understand the difference between watts and volts
The EV’s will be the “DEATH” of GM.
Yep. Come on UAW strike. Time to kill off one of the Big 3 Automakers.
Time for schools to teach real problems for when u get out of school. Pensions, mortgages, taxes,retirement plans. Kids get out of school and have no clue. With EVS you’re going to have to learn a new way of servicing them. This comes with progress. With every new car development you lose jobs but then you gain a different type of job. With the money the government gave to the big 3 they should use this money to retrain their employees. I’m sure the young kids coming out of school today would love to fix these cars. They were brought up with all this technology.
My Chevy dealership charges 200$ Ev diagnostic fee to look at it. That they don’t charge on gas.
My chevy dealer charges $286 dollars an hour…or tries to. They do good work based on my volt. However I wonder once the all star certified mechanic retires who will take his place. Hopefully they are training a 3rd one as they do have a 2nd one but not sure if he is at the level of the first one. PS: insurance paid them like $250 an hour in an estimate but it seems even insurances now recognize the importance of this level of expertise on EVs. I am counting on my EV being as reliable as my cell phone and tv so that I have little interaction other than coolan loop changes in the future once my GM EV gets produced any day now…LOL.
No surprise.
Too bad GM can’t keep their training centers up to date with letting us know how to work on this new junk! I’m 100% EV trained yet never touched anything with an Ultium battery in it. I guess a few of us have to die for them before they’ll spend that money.
Who is spending money? I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying that your dealer won’t send you to school?
GM has none of these new vehicles in their training centers. My dealer sent me and I learned about outdate technology. No Hummers or Lyriqs in the school. Nothing with the Ultium battery. To make it worse when calling TAC for clarification on disconnecting a Hummer battery I was given no help. First question was any I EV certified. Can’t work on them or sell them at our dealer without “trained” techs. Also filed a complaint with AWARE Line as this is a very dangerous situation and they had no response.