In several major global economies, sales of electric cars are already stagnant. In the UK, where consumer uptake has stagnated for the better part of two years, shortages of repair technicians further dampened the demand.
Insurance and repair businesses such as the AA, which offers roadside assistance throughout the UK, claim that rising repair costs are a result of a shortage of mechanics qualified to do the most sophisticated EV repairs. When you factor in costs like protracted lead times for new parts, underwriters are choosing to prematurely send electric models to the junkyard heap by totalling cars with relatively minor damage.
The car may be completely written off in the event of an apparently straightforward collision that harms the battery or the container that houses it, according to Marco Distefano, Managing Director of insurer AXA SA’s UK retail division. Regarding the cost, in “In the end, that raises the price of insurance.”
As per the Institute of the Motor Industry, which offers training and certification, less than 10% of the UK’s 200000–36000 auto technicians are certified to work directly on EV batteries in some instances. Even while many technicians are capable of doing simpler repairs, more training is necessary for the more difficult ones because of the intricacy of the circuits and potential for electrocution.
” The Ante is risen quite a lot because you are dealing with no mistakes really,” Darren Naughton, an AA trainer, set during a visit in Birmingham. ” it’s instant death on the systems.” drivers are concerned that a collision is more likely to lead to an EV write-off, according to UK Consultants Thatcham Research.
Although repair shops are beginning to train employees, the Institute for Motor Industry Forecasts (IMI) indicates that by 2035, when the sale of new combustion cars is prohibited, the UK will still lack approximately 30,000 skilled technicians.
