The public’s concern about electric vehicles (EVs) has mostly been centered around a lack of available charging stations. And for good reason—the last thing anyone driving an EV wants to experience is running out of power with nowhere to recharge in sight.
While this is a legitimate concern, there’s another one that might not be getting quite as much attention—who’s going to fix EV chargers when they break?
There currently are not enough qualified people available to repair damaged EV chargers, according to Automotive News. Approximately 4,000 EV chargers have more than 7,000 charging ports that don’t work, per Department of Energy data—a 6 percent outage rate.
Additionally, Here Technologies, which takes real-time data from connected chargers notes that more than 4,500 chargers were out of order but believes more “unconnected” charge points were also inoperable.
The lack of working chargers has been a pain point for current EV drivers and a turn off for potential EV buyers, Jalopnik reports. The inability to find qualified electricians to repair broken chargers will only had to frustration and hesitation.
Unfortunately, finding a highly skilled electrician who is also trained on EV chargers is difficult to find, according to Matt Trout, President of Trout Electric. His company services and installs chargers and other electric equipment.
“If you came to me right now with a journeyman (electrician) that’s been in the EV charging industry for the last couple of years, he’d be hired on the spot,” Trout told Automotive News.
The U.S. will need approximately 140,000 additional certified electricians by 2030 to help with the move to EVs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says employment for electricians is projected to grow 6 percent from 2022 to 2023, but profession’s labor pool will decrease 14 percent.
Estimates are that the U.S. will need “142,000 more certified electricians by 2030” to help with the EV transition. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that demand for electricians is supposed to grow six percent in the next decade, the electrician labor pool will shrink 14 percent.
There might be enough certified electricians to repair or install EV chargers, but assistance could be on the way, according to Jalopnik. Startup company ChargerHelp!, which enables on-demand maintenance and repair of electric vehicle charging stations, partnered with SAE International to train more people in EV charger repair. The partnership comes at an ideal time as an electrician shortage in this field could delay the EV transition even longer.
“The growth, development, and utilization of Internet of Things assets in the transportation sector is seen every day,” Kameale C. Terry, chief executive officer, ChargerHelp! said in a statement. “The EV Supply Equipment is a very unique product that combines innovative technology for the charging of electric vehicles. It is crucial that specialized maintenance technicians are well trained to help inform the industry how the software works together with the hardware, and support high uptime of the chargers, while practicing maximum safety.”
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