The Expert Podcast

We’ve talked before about some of the challenges of getting the consumer base to switch over to electric vehicles. We’ve talked before about prices of the cars, charging stations, range—but here’s one that’s not very frequently talked about: what about repairs? Car dealerships are now selling more electric vehicles. There’s an interest in those vehicles; it’s on the rise. But what about service?

Now granted, electric vehicles—EVs, pure plug-ins—don’t have as much in terms of repair necessities. There are not as many moving parts. There’s not internally lubricated parts like for an internal combustion engine. But they do need repairs and service. Traditional dealerships are sounding an alarm over having the ability to service these vehicles.

Why is that? Why can’t they just bring it in and fix it? Well, here’s why. First, mechanics that work in these shops—vehicle technicians, as they refer to—have been trained for 10, 20, 30 years on how to fix gasoline piston engine vehicles. They don’t have that long of an experience fixing EVs.

It’s a whole different process. Needs training. And those training programs can take weeks or months for a technician to go through. That means they have to be off the shop floor fixing cars and in training. That costs the dealership money.

The other thing is equipment and tools to fix these cars. What are we talking about? The transition can cost big bucks to shops, because General Motors, as an example, has required dealers to invest two hundred thousand dollars in service equipment, testing, diagnostic, special tools.

And some dealerships are just choosing to take a buyout because they don’t want to spend that much money to upgrade their shop. Occasional maintenance is still necessary. Someone to work on a vehicle can be a challenge.

According to the research that was done, General Motors requires every dealership to sell EVs to have a minimum of two technicians to have fully completed an EV training path. This requires 60 courses that you have to take to become a certified technician for electric vehicles.

For dealers, it’s required to have in place all the tools and equipment needed to service the vehicles. And that four thousand of forty thousand technicians have completed the transition. That means 10% have—and 90% have not.

So what are your thoughts? Do you have an electric vehicle? Have you had to do any service on it? It still needs tires. It still needs brakes. There are still moving parts on it. The batteries sometimes need maintenance. It’s more of electronic, technical maintenance than mechanical maintenance. But have you had to have your vehicle serviced?

Did you do any work on it? How did that go with the dealership? Did they have the parts? Did they have the staff? Tell us what you think and if you think this is going to be an easy transition for new car dealers.