Industry says Australia not ready for EV boom

The pledge by Australian prime minister Scott Morrison that motorists will own and drive 1.7 million zero and low emissions vehicles (ZLEV) by 2030 has hit a speed bump according to the Victoria Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC).

While the Australian government’s Future Fuels and Vehicle Strategy outlines the transition to a mostly electric vehicle fleet, VACC says new modelling shows the country is far from ready to deal with a boom in EV sales.

“There are 25,000 electric vehicles in the country, serviced and maintained by about 500 EV technicians,” VACC chief executive Geoff Gwilym says.

He says if that number grows to 1.7 million by 2030, while the number of technicians – if something isn’t done – will remain the same, creating an enormous skills gap in less than a decade. 

“Australia has eight years to increase the number of electric vehicle technicians by 1578% to meet the Government target of 1.7 million zero and low emission vehicles on-road by 2030,” Gwilym says. 

“My question is: How does Prime minister Morrison propose to do that?” 

“According to current industry trends, Australia will only have 17.5% of the required number of trained electric vehicle technicians by 2030. 

“Based on trend growth in EV technicians to date, there will be a deficit of more than 6000 electric vehicle technicians by 2030. Australia needs more than 7300 EV technicians to service and maintain the future fleet,” he says. 

Gwilym says the Government needs to take measures now to ensure Australia has a skilled future workforce. 

“Without trained electric vehicle technicians, the planned EV sales boom will collide with a lack of people qualified to maintain them,” he says.