About one in 10 repairers in Australia are certified to service electric vehicles and it is estimated upskilling each new mechanic could cost $5,000-$7,000.About one in 10 repairers in Australia are certified to service electric vehicles and it is estimated upskilling each new mechanic could cost $5,000-$7,000.
“When you look at the need to upskill the industry, we’ve got a problem and we’ve had one for a while,” Hobbs said.“It’s not necessarily obvious on any car what the damage is underneath,” Hobbs said. “Now when you’ve got a 400 volt battery and you’re looking under a panel … you need to depower the battery, remove it, then re-energise it … to safely work an EV.”
An insurance industry source said insurers had seen cases of scratched battery packs where the cells inside were likely undamaged. But the vehicle would still need to be written off if it could not be seen by a trained mechanic who could access the diagnostic data.
The Electric Vehicle Council says the laws are too prescriptive and it believes mechanics and insurers should have more scope to repair in more circumstances. But the EV industry remains frustrated by those increased premiums because, in general, EVs that are not involved in a crash are likely to require considerably less servicing over its lifetime.