Report

A vehicle for change

This report from UK think tank the Social Market Foundation looks at upskilling the UK’s technicians to service and repair electric vehicles.

This report from Social Market Foundation think-tank looks at policy actions required to avert a skills gap in the automotive industry, for the service and repair of electric vehicles A key part of shifting to cleaner road transport will require replacing 32 million high-carbon vehicles with alternatives like electric vehicles… and having enough qualified technicians to service and repair them, of course. Whilst there’s a current surplus of technicians, a skills crunch looms at the end of the decade – a shortfall of 25k by 2030. Concerted action from government and industry is likely to be required to avert this. In speaking to workers and expert stakeholders, we learnt of upskilling barriers such as recruitment challenges, low confidence in Government plans for the EV transition, FE colleges capital constraints and the need for additional support for small workshops. Set to be a medium-term issue, we believe that policymakers and industry have an opportunity to sufficiently plan for, design, and implement solutions – key of which is to launch an attractive green careers campaign to get young people into EV repairs.