Lloyd Morgan Group highlights EV skills crisis
Transport compliance and workshop training specialist Lloyd Morgan Group has warned that transport operators cannot afford to ignore the developing skills crisis around electric vehicles in the workshop sector.
The company points to figures drawn from the Institute of the Motor Industry’s (IMI) latest TechSafe data showing that, by the end of September 2025, only one in four UK vehicle technicians held a qualification to work on electric vehicles.
“Even more striking than the percentage itself is the trend behind it: the number of technicians gaining an EV qualification fell by nearly 13 per cent between the first and third quarters of 2025,” said Lloyd Morgan Group.
“Investment in upskilling is slowing at exactly the moment the commercial vehicle fleet is beginning its mandated shift towards zero-emission technology.
“For fleet operators, this is not an abstract workforce issue. It is a direct threat to vehicle availability, maintenance capacity and regulatory compliance.”
A technician who cannot work on an electric vehicle is a technician whose value to the maintenance operation is narrowing at exactly the moment the fleet is expanding in that direction, the company points out.
“Unqualified workshop teams mean longer turnaround times, greater dependency on specialist third parties and higher costs per unscheduled downtime event.
“IMI projections suggest the problem will worsen before it improves. The gap between EV-qualified technicians and those required is forecast to exceed 44,000 by 2035.”
EV-qualified technicians are not distributed evenly across the industry, adds Lloyd Morgan Group.
“The IMI’s data consistently shows that relevant skills are concentrated in the franchise dealer network, leaving independent workshops and commercial vehicle operations significantly under-served. Operators whose vehicles are maintained by in-house teams or contracted independent workshops face a greater risk of finding their maintenance capacity inadequate as electric vehicles enter the fleet.
“The geography of the problem compounds this. Availability of qualified technicians varies considerably by region, creating what the IMI has described as a postcode lottery effect. Operators in areas where EV skills are thin face longer lead times, higher third-party maintenance costs and the risk that minor faults become extended off-road periods simply because the right expertise is not locally accessible.”
The company highlights employers’ duty of care to those who work on or near high-voltage vehicles. The hazards include electric shock, fire, explosion and chemical exposure from battery packs.
“For operators who employ workshop staff or who are responsible for the maintenance environments their vehicles enter, this is a compliance and liability issue that sits alongside the more visible operational risks,” said Lloyd Morgan Group.
“EV workshop training operates across several qualification levels, each building on the last. At foundation level, the focus is on hazard awareness: understanding the risks of high-voltage systems, identifying relevant components and knowing how to respond in the event of an incident.
“This level is appropriate not just for technicians who work directly on vehicles but for any workshop employee who operates near electric or hybrid vehicles.
“More advanced training covers the technical depth required to maintain and repair EV systems. This includes electrical and electronic principles as they apply to motor vehicles; the architecture of battery packs, electric motors, inverters and charging infrastructure; charging protocols from standard AC and DC through to smart and rapid charging; battery health monitoring, thermal management and fault diagnosis; and the safe decommissioning and recommissioning of high-voltage vehicles during maintenance and repair.
“This is not an extension of diesel or petrol vehicle knowledge. EV maintenance is a distinct discipline requiring different tools, different risk protocols and a different approach to how vehicle systems interact.”
For operators running HGVs and PSVs, adds the company, the relevant training framework also includes heavy vehicle-specific qualifications addressing the characteristics of high-voltage systems in larger commercial platforms.
Lloyd Morgan Group delivers IMI-accredited electric and hybrid vehicle training for commercial workshop teams across the UK, covering the full qualification range: from the Level 1 Award in Electric/Hybrid Vehicle Awareness for staff working near high-voltage systems, through to the Level 3 Award in Heavy Electric/Hybrid Vehicle System Repair and Replacement for technicians maintaining HGVs, PSVs and other large commercial vehicles.
Hydrogen vehicle awareness training is also available as fuel-cell technology moves towards mainstream commercial deployment.
“Training is delivered on-site at your workshop or fleet premises, aligned with IMI qualification standards and led by trainers with direct commercial vehicle experience,” said the company.
“The operators best placed for the decade ahead are those building qualified workshop capacity now.”
More information about Lloyd Morgan Group’s electric and hybrid vehicle training courses is available via the website.
