IMI urges government to invest in charging and address EV skills shortage

The UK is not ready to scrap diesel and petrol cars because of the lack of infrastructure to support electric alternatives, according to a strongly worded rebuttal to government plans to ban these vehicles from 2040 issued by the Institute of the Motor Industry.

The IMI also highlighted the need to address a skills shortage of qualified staff able to work on EVs and hybrid vehicles.

“The government’s announcement is all stick and no carrot. We must start with the basics by ensuring that we have the infrastructure and skills base to support motorists making an easy transition from petrol and diesel to electric and hybrid,” said IMI chief executive Steve Nash.

“A greater and more rapid investment is needed in the charging infrastructure and financial support to help those working in the service and repair sector, most particularly the independent operators, to gain the skills to work on the new technologies.”

The IMI noted that although an increasing number of motorists are switching to electric and hybrid alternatives, the number of charging stations has only grown by 16% since last year and technicians trained to work safely on the high-voltage technology remains at 1%.

“Britain will fail to remove diesels and petrols and in turn improve air quality, if significant investment isn’t made to the number of charging stations across the UK. Furthermore, the IMI has found insurance costs for ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) can be up to 50% higher than for petrol or diesels equivalents and these won’t become more competitive until more people are qualified to work on them.”

“The UK will fail to keep up with the global competition for the adoption of ULEVs if the charging infrastructure isn’t drastically improved and more technicians are given the training required to service these high powered vehicles.”