There’s A Shortage Of Certified Technicians To Fix EV Chargers

As more and more electric vehicles take over American roadways, the availability of EV chargers becomes more of a limiting factor. While the number of EV chargers is slowly increasing to meet demand, more chargers are subsequently in need of servicing. Now, it appears as though there simply aren’t enough certified technicians available to fix broken-down chargers.

According to a report from Automotive News, there were nearly 4,000 out-of-service public EV charging stations across the U.S. as of October 5th, 2023. This corresponds to approximately six percent of all chargers across America, leading to increased frustration among electric vehicle drivers.

In an attempt to address this issue, the Biden administration recently announced a $100 million fund dedicated to the repair and replacement of nonoperational charging infrastructure across the United States. Dubbed the EV Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator project, both publicly and privately owned EV charging stations will be covered, while applications are due by November 13th, 2023.

“Public charging is competing for a scarcity of labor with these other demands,” Qmerit Chief Work Force Officer Eric Feinberg stated in a prepared statement. “Improving the public charging infrastructure will require creative ways to find and train electricians.”

Of course, the biggest issue here is the overall lack of electricians to fix and maintain the charging infrastructure. In fact, the aggressive EV adoption plans – which includes General Motors’ goal of fielding 30 EVs worldwide by 2025 – will only serve to further aggravate this widespread problem.

“There is a hunger from communities across the U.S. to be able to participate in this space, to get good paying jobs,” said ChargerHelp! CEO Kameale Terry claimed. “Traditional electrician skills will be necessary, but so will software skills. If someone goes out to change the connector, but doesn’t understand the full breadth of the ecosystem, it’s hard for them to know if changing that connector was good enough.”