EV Shift Requires A Huge Reskilling Task For India

Mayank Jain Dec 05, 2022

EVs are undoubtedly the future of transportation and the world is adopting EVs at an increasing pace. Hundreds of companies/start-ups in India and across the world are coming up with the newer solutions to establish and develop the overall EV ecosystem.

India is also seeing a huge influx of engineers, designers, businessmen and women into the EV domain as the Indian government is betting big on sustainable and renewable energy where EVs are the first order of business.

EVs are relatively accessible as a technology to transition to as most of the groundwork has already been done, i.e, EVs are essentially cars, scooters, bikes, trucks and the like but with electricity powering them instead of fuel. But as the demand for EVs rises, the intricacies of the technology, the challenges it poses and the risks involved become more and more pronounced. There are battery infrastructure challenges, battery safety challenges and milestones, infrastructure invention, adoption and execution, services to be built and maintained and of course, all the technology changes and challenges of the vehicles themselves. On top of all of this – everyday users need to start using and get accustomed to driving and using EVs regularly, which as of now is easier said than done.

With EVs, a whole new way of planning and thinking about the vehicle is required until the technology catches up and offers solutions.

So, as it turns out, EVs aren’t as easy to deploy as it seems. This in turn begs the question – does India have the labour to pull this off?

On the face of it, the answer would indicate that India is definitely capable of transitioning to EVs. India has world-class engineering colleges that routinely produce bright and talented young engineers. India also has world-class business colleges. The only piece remaining is that of skilled labour.

India has a very mature automotive sector where the highest-end cars are sold, maintained, repaired and serviced. So the skill level is already at an advanced degree. But EVs require a whole new level of understanding, education, craft and skill.

EVs are almost like regular vehicles with an all-new energy generation mechanism. This in turn means a new power delivery mechanism and new drive trains. EVs are also seen as vehicles that rely heavily on IoT – the Internet Of Things. These vehicles are considered smart and synch with phones and tablets and give way more information about the performance and the health of individual systems in the vehicles than ICE vehicles. All these new aspects will spawn new service requirements, new expectations and new repairability and maintenance goals, which will have to be met by skilled labour that specialises in EVs. This new generation of skilled labour needs to be cultivated, and the sooner the country does it, the faster India transitions to EVs.

The driving force of that transition would be ease of ownership. It will drive sales and be the incentive for more customers to consider owning an EV. This ease of ownership will have to exist beyond the traditional dealer/showroom/service centre circle. EVs have several software instruments that provide a lot of insight and data to the owner of the vehicle. EVs offer remote diagnosis capabilities of key components such as batteries, motors, and brakes and could also provide remote solutions in terms of firmware upgrades for the OS of the vehicle and over-the-air fixes.

To keep up with these demands, India needs to deploy a national effort in educating the existing workforce as well as attracting and building a new workforce. Upskilling will be the key touchstone that will enable EVs to not only be sold but also manufactured and created in India. Repairing these vehicles would also require an advanced understanding of the interplay between new technologies and software, which would also require manpower capable of executing such tasks.

Identifying those among the existing workforce population who are savvy with computers or want to upskill to a more tech-based role should be a pan-India endeavour to create software engineers who are capable of handling immediate, quick solutions for customers. Existing vehicle owners are very comfortable with leaving their cars at their favourite neighbouring mechanic, which is a practice that is under threat due to EVs. This endeavour of upskilling the labour force should extend to those mechanics as well. Not only would it increase the capabilities and job opportunities for those mechanics, but it would also continue the ease of ownership that customers experience now with ICE vehicles.

EVs have captured the interest of the youth as well as those who are looking for a sustainable, renewable and ecologically rich future. This is a promising time that the government, institutions, educational establishments and automotive companies and service providers should come together and capitalise upon. India is well-positioned to be a global leader in the EV sector. If these various sectors band together and meet the need to upskill, not only will it benefit India economically and technologically but culturally as well.