Are You Ready for the EV Evolution?

Electric vehicles (EVs) are on the horizon – whether your shop is prepared or not! A highlight of SCC 2023 was a panel on “Preparing Your Shop for Electric Vehicles: Repair Strategies and Vehicle Management,” which featured Jake Rodenroth (Lucid Motors), Mark Allen (Audi America), Kelly Logan (Rivian) and Michael Bradshaw (K&M Collision; Hickory, NC), moderated by Barry Dorn (Dorn’s Body & Paint; Mechanicsville, VA).

The biggest challenge for many shops when it comes to getting ready to repair EVs is the amount of training required, but according to Allen, who stressed the importance of researching OEM repair procedures on every single vehicle, “If you’re not learning every day, you’ve got the wrong culture in your business. Make sure your folks have a foundational knowledge and build from there.”

Dorn agreed, “Training is not a destination; it’s a journey at which you’ll never arrive.”

Since Lucid doesn’t have dealerships, their certification model is a little different than other manufacturers. “We don’t certify the brick and mortar; we certify the people,” Rodenroth explained. “They’re a reflection of us…Do they believe in the company message because that ultimately reflects on the work? You can buy the tools and take the training, but if you don’t believe in the message, you’re not going to complete the mission. I need warriors.”

As a newer company, Rivian is still developing its repair procedures, but Kelly pointed out that vehicle sophistication has significantly enhanced over the past decade with all models, not just EVs. “EVs are safe to work on as long as you know what you’re doing, but you can’t be complacent when it comes to working on EVs; you need to research OEM repair procedures and to receive the right training. But that’s on all vehicles, right? Everyone has seen the sophistication of vehicles in the last 10 years…It used to be easy to fix cars because you could pretty much apply a similar repair methodology to most vehicles, but you can’t do that anymore. You have to research these procedures and access that information every time because those procedures can change.”

While all vehicles are undoubtedly more complex, EVs definitely pose different risks than internal combustion engines. “As an industry, we’ve done a really poor job of investing in the training, tools and equipment we need, but if we do that with EVs and take them into the shop, we’re putting technicians’ lives at risk!” Bradshaw warned. “The average repair order is $3,200; is that really worth a tech’s life? We need to recognize that there are cars we aren’t equipped to work on and just move those cars down the road to a shop that is better prepared.”