Training & wellbeing 45 www.aftermarketonline.net APRIL 2026 Overcoming the EV training conundrum With EV training becoming ever more important for independent garages, Autotech Training highlights a practical solution that can make it work for the business. EV training has historically been delayed across the independent sector – not because of a lack of awareness, but because taking technicians off the tools has felt commercially risky. When a technician leaves site for training, the ramp they would normally occupy sits empty. In commercial terms, that can equate to around £1,000 per day in lost revenue per unstaffed ramp, even before travel, accommodation or disruption to workflow are considered. However, hesitation is becoming harder to justify with more than two million new electric vehicles registered in the UK last year, and almost one-in-four buyers now choosing electric. As EV adoption accelerates, its impact is also being felt beyond the new car market. Electric vehicles are entering the used car parc in growing numbers, changing hands more frequently and moving outside franchised dealer networks. So, independent garages will likely see more EVs, whether they actively prepare for them or not, and if a garage cannot safely work on an EV its customer relationships are at risk. Today, EV training is about staying operational. At a practical level, vehicle technicians must understand how to work safely around high-voltage systems. They need to be able to recognise risk and operate within accepted compliance standards. However, despite the clear need for training, challenges remain. Traditional offsite training takes technicians away from the business, and, for a small garage, this can disrupt scheduling, reduce throughput and leave workshop ramps unused. Just as importantly, off-site training often focuses on generic vehicle examples, rather than the specific EVs that technicians may see day-to-day. When training doesn’t reflect the vehicles coming through the workshop door, its value is reduced. A practical solution On-site EV training can offer a practical solution. Delivered at the workshop, training can be tailored to the vehicles the garage regularly services – including fleet cars and light commercial vehicles. This makes the learning far more relevant and helps technicians apply new knowledge straightaway, rather than translating it back to unfamiliar models. In the case of London black cab fleet operator, Sherbet the Electric Taxi Company, Autotech Training delivered EV training onsite using the electric taxis its technicians work on every day. “By delivering EV training onsite, technicians are learning in the environment they work in every day, using the equipment and processes they already know,” said Alistair McCrindle, Operations Director at Autotech Training. “This significantly reduces downtime and helps knowledge stick. Training multiple technicians at the same time also limits disruption, spreads cost and embeds EV capability across the business.” With EV numbers rising, the cost of not training is becoming more significant than the cost of training itself. For independent garages, the question is no longer whether EV training is necessary, but how to approach it in a way that protects productivity. www.autotechtraining.co.uk Practical, hands-on EV training ensures technicians can work safely and confidently with high-voltage systems.
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