Rivus and Fleet Assist have stepped in to support work on plugging a gap in EV skills for the UK’s vehicle technicians ahead of the 2030 ICE phase-out.

Fleet Assist and Rivus are already ahead of the game on EV-trained technicians but have called on garages across the UK to take action

The gap in skills is widening as EV adoption accelerates, according to new figures this week from the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI). It’s also cautioned that the UK automotive sector will have a shortfall of nearly 36,000 technicians by 2030 unless training is addressed urgently – and warned that 2026 marks the point at which the skills gap will materialise.

In response, Fleet Assist, which runs an SMR network for fleets, has called on garages across the UK to continue to get “EV Ready” in line with the industry’s needs.

While it’s been growing its EV network capability since 2019, expanding the list of garages approved to work on these vehicle types from 1,614 to 4,000 in just three years, it’s echoed calls that the industry at large may get left behind as adoption of electric vehicles soars.

Saying that there’s a real danger that the industry might find itself underserved, managing director Vincent St Claire is urging garages which do not yet have technicians qualified to the IMI level 2 standard or above not to delay work to hit to this key level of EV qualification.

“We continue to work hard and refer to the IMI to ensure that we provide our view to the garages on our network as to the training and qualification requirements not just for today, but for the future. Part of this has been readying our network for the rising numbers of EV and fuel cell vehicles which are hitting our roads in rapidly increasing number. If the UK is to reach the levels of EV market penetration as seen in Norway, with 80% of the new vehicle order book being electric, we need to ensure that the SMR infrastructure around these vehicles is set up accordingly.”

He stressed that skills for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were a key part of this.

“A good example of this can be seen across nine garages within our network which are set up and fully qualified to service and repair hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles, but we would urge others to follow suit in order to keep up with the shift in technology which we know is coming.”

Rivus Fleet Solutions has also responded to the IMI research; HR director Victoria Knight said she has seen first-hand how the current shortage of vehicle technicians is affecting not only the fleet industry, but the motor industry as a whole, caused by a number of issues.

“There is a skill shortage within the industry already caused by a number of factors; an aging workforce along with less people coming into the industry and the current driver shortage which has led to a number of technicians changing careers to take advantage of the current inflated salaries.”

Rivus is already moving ahead with plans to plug the skills gap ahead of the deadline, by investing in apprentices and upskilling all technicians.

Knight continued: “Investing in apprentices is going to be key in growing skills for the future and we will onboard a cohort of new talent every year. Our industry needs to invest in young people and attract new, diverse talent, or this will only further add to the predicted skills shortage in the future.

“Also important to us is developing all of our technicians so they are equipped to work on electric vehicles. This means we will have multi-talented team members who will be able to adapt to the transition from combustion to electric vehicles far in advance of 2030. We have already upskilled over 25% of our technicians providing EV capability in all our locations and intend to retrain a further 50% more of our team in 2022.”