Maine Shops Take Advantage of Growing Training Opportunities in EV Repair
Since Southern Maine Community College launched the first course on electric vehicle repair in the state, other schools in Maine have followed suit, with dealerships and auto shops alike taking advantage of the new offerings, reports Government Technology.
The 16-week course first launched in 2021, and trains students on predictive maintenance, diagnosis, and repair of hybrid and electric vehicles. Funded by the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, instruction comes at no cost to students.
By the end of the course, students are prepped to take the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence certification test for light-duty hybrid and electric vehicle specialists.
Since the course began, 20–25 students have completed it, according to instructor Ruth Morrison. Other schools have also taken on EV training as a result, such as Washington County Community College in Calais and Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor.
Participants of the EV repair course range from dealership techs and IT specialists to technicians with regional auto repair businesses like VIP Tires & Service.
“The boss came in and said, ‘You're going,’” was how Aaron Jamison, an automotive technician at VIP Tires and Service in Lewiston, described how he entered the program.
Of VIP’s 22 employees across its three shops in Lewiston and Auburn, four are qualified to repair EVs, shared VIP’s Director of Operations Robert Kaffel. As many as 200 employees across VIP’s 74 other New England locations are also enrolled in other training courses, as well.
A little over 16,000 battery EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs are currently on Maine roads. While that comprises 1.3% of light-duty vehicles, it’s also more than double the number of EVs in Maine as recently as December 2021.
As that number grows, so will the demand for technicians equipped to operate on a variety of vehicles, whether it be an EV, diesel, four-, six-, or eight-cylinder; but such technicians can be difficult to find. With dealerships requiring a tech that can operate on EVs to even sell them, they’re eager to recruit them before anyone else can.
