GB News guests debate using electric cars in 2022
Electric car owners in the UK could find “nobody can fix” damaged vehicles due to a major shortage in skilled experts, according to a leading mechanic.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, top mechanic Scotty Kilmer warned the push for electric cars in Britain could backfire with many garages not equipped to deal with EV issues.
He said: “Well I like it that Europe is becoming a guinea pig for electric cars… You up in England are trying to push electrification.
“I was just talking to a guy in London and he said there are laws by 2030 they are not going to sell gas or diesel cars to people, so you’ve got to buy electric cars right? (now delayed until 2035).
“Well nobody can fix them right, there’s already a real lack of mechanics to fix gasoline and diesel cars.
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“Wait until they become electrified, if ever, and see if anybody is going to be able to fix them.”
Mr Kilmer then added the UK could be short by around 25,000 EV technicians by the end of the decade.
He added: “One thing about electric cars of course they are high voltage. They could be 400v, 600v, 800v, they could kill you.
“Technicians don’t usually get paid that well. Why would you want to risk your life?
“At least when you’re working on a gasoline or a diesel car the electrical power is so low, mainly 12v, some 24v, it’s not going to kill you but these other ones can.
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“The way they keep paying technicians less and less it’s certainly not going to bode well for hiring 100,000 or more new technicians because no one is going to want to do a dangerous job like that at such low pay.
“And the guys, my generation, that are older and getting ready to retire, do you think they are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment to work on them, no they aren’t.”
Earlier this month, lobby group Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) predicted there was a cooking EV skills gap.
The group expects there to be around 8,000 fewer EV technicians than was needed by 2030.
However, this could rise to around 24,000 by 2032 in a major concern for owners.
The IMI said training new staff on EV equipment was being pushed down the priority list due to concerns about rising costs and inflation.
Just 20 percent of UK mechanics are qualified to work on electric cars, a total of around 45,000 individuals.
Emma Carrigy, research manager at the IMI, said: “It’s perhaps not surprising, given the enormous amount of uncertainty in the early part of this year about the ICE ban, that individuals working in the sector and their employers have taken their foot off the pedal on EV training.
“It also appears that training budgets may be among the first to be cut in the face of challenging economic conditions.”
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