‘Doctors of the auto industry’: How one occupation could make or break EV success in Australia

By 2030, it’s predicted there will be 3.4 million hybrid and electric vehicles on Australian roads – but with a massive shortfall in EV mechanics as things stand today, there won’t be enough people to service or repair them.

As of January 2025, there is a shortage of between 21,000 and 30,000 EV mechanics – one quarter of the total technician workforce needed to keep up with all the cars set to be on our roads by decade’s end, regardless of their powertrain.

It’s a problem that’s steadily getting worse too.

We’ve spoken to the experts to find out what’s going on and how it will affect you.

The car industry has been struggling with a shortage of mechanics for a number of years, but the growing popularity of electric vehicles  – and the push from governments to buy them – is exacerbating the problem.

To be able to work on electric vehicles safely there are key skills you need, and that means both existing mechanics upskilling or finding new apprentices.

The workforce is ageing too, with not much new blood coming in, hence the shortfall.

The Federal Government is spruiking its ‘clean economy’ – but the job of an EV mechanic is the most in-demand role in the transition, and many agree not enough is being done to make sure there are enough of them to service and repair the cars we’re all being told to buy. 

Lesley Yates, Director of Government Relations and Advocacy at the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA), says no-one should underestimate the severity of the issue facing the industry right now.

“We have a massive skill shortage. And it's not an understatement to say it has been getting progressively worse. And when you're looking at a problem of this size – a problem that is so wicked – I think you do need a major intervention and EV could just be that major intervention for us,” she told Drive.

“In a way that’s really exciting. When you think about mechanics, you think about a very old-style job, don't you? A man with overalls on. You’re thinking about a mechanic in the 1950s running their own garage, fixing cars. 

“And yes, that’s still what we're doing in 2025 – running garages, fixing cars – but of course, there have been so many innovations. We fix a vehicle with a laptop now, not with a spanner. The car is basically a computer on wheels.”

If there aren’t enough EV mechanics trained up by 2030, and the sales of electric vehicles keep rising as internal combustion engine cars begin to be phased out, then it will be much harder to get your car serviced and it will cost more.

Yates estimates wait times could be two months or more to get booked in for a service, let alone the time needed for any more complex work to be carried out.

She says fewer mechanics means less competition, which will lead to higher prices.

“The first hit really is it takes you eight weeks to get your vehicle serviced. That's the first place you'll see it is when you book in for your regular service, they'll say, ‘our first available time slot is the middle of March’,” said Yates.

“And that's when you go, ‘I'm due for a service right now’. Some of us only look at that sticker or get the warning a few weeks in advance. So first of all, it's a time delay. That's of concern because often we all wait for our regular service to fix up other things.

“Given that your brake pads and steering systems are all part of the regular service that affects road safety. And inevitably supply and demand means that the price goes up, wait longer, you'll put off critical repair and the price goes up for that too.”

However, there is an alternative – and that’s already happening – that someone who is not qualified to work on an electric car is servicing and repairing your vehicle.

At present, a technician who is otherwise legally qualified to carry out work on internal combustion-engined (ICE) cars can undertake servicing and repairs on electric vehicles without any additional training.

This is the case in most states and territories except for New South Wales and Western Australia, where there are licensing laws that prevent mechanics from working on vehicles without the necessary training.

Drive understands that while it’s 'not a free-for-all' with mechanics going rogue doing work they don’t know how to do, there largely aren’t any rules in place to prevent it from happening.

As previously reported by Drive, one mechanic told us that “there's not really anything that we are not allowed to do, because there's nothing legislated with what sort of qualifications you need to be able to work on them”. 

“Anything that can be done on a Tesla or a BYD, technically we can do it. It's only the knowledge base of the information you don’t have that [morally] prevents you from doing it because there's nothing legislated where you have to have a qualification.”

While theoretically this is a problem, in reality it’s understood most mechanics farm out EV work if they’re not qualified to someone who is.

No, and this is another factor – with the workforce aging, many current mechanics are set to retire in the coming years, so have little to no inclination to spend time and money training in something they don’t need to do.

Because there is already such a shortfall of mechanics to work on the cars we have now, they just don’t need the business, they’re busy enough.

Anthony Tydd, who owns Briggs Automotive in Bendigo, VIC, has been in the trade almost 40 years, and at 55 is looking towards retirement rather than retraining.

“Over the last two years, I stopped taking new customers. We were just growing too big. I couldn't contain it. I don't need the work. I'm already too busy,” he told us.

“I don't need the EV side of it. It interests me, I like it, but I don’t need it. I'm very busy and I think a lot of guys in the trade are busy. A lot of guys are getting out of the trade. There are more people getting out than getting in. 

“There's always been a trade shortage coming. It has been written on the wall for the last 20 years because, and I tell every kid that does work experience here, it's the lowest-paid trade. You need to know more than any other trade, you need more tools, more expensive tools at that, and everything changes quicker too.”

Jeff Smit, who runs Premier Automotive in the country town of Brookdale near Wagga Wagga in NSW, has been in the trade for almost 50 years.

While Jeff has undertaken EV training, he’s considering retiring in the next few years as well, and recognises that it’s not a priority for everyone.

“I've always been passionate about the electrical side of things. So when hybrids first came out, I was all over it early,” he told Drive.

“But I’m 62, I've given myself three more years of being on the tools and owning a workshop, so I'm not going to heavily invest in it personally.

“My partner is 35, so he's got another 30 years left in the trade, so he's heavily investing into it as a workshop and as a technician because he can see that's where his future is for many, many years. Obviously, for us older guys that are in the trade, which unfortunately is probably the majority, we’re at the tail-end of our careers so why would we upskill into an area that we're upskilling to retire? We wouldn't do it. 

“That's a challenge for the industry that is predominantly an older age set to try and get enough young people in to make it a proper career. The problem is they don't want to just do one thing for their whole life.”

At present there isn’t one national straightforward pathway for light vehicle technicians to be trained on how to work on EVs. 

There are seven agreed modules, though – with one focusing on how to safely depower and repower an electric car a 'must-have' – which is what Jeff did a couple of years ago, taking about a week to complete.

“I'm the only one that's done that formal qualification in my shop,” he told us. “I'm lucky where I am. Everyone knows I'm the EV and hybrid guy. They don't want to touch it. They just send it to me.

“I've just taken another guy who started around three months ago and he wants to be the head EV and hybrid guy. So we'll start upskilling him too.”

Jeff has also been key to establishing the ‘EV and Hybrid Network’, a group of certified specialist workshops who are trained to service, diagnose and repair all such vehicles.

Currently, there are roughly 100 repairers dotted around Australia, with Jeff saying the goal is to reach 500.

There is a lot being done to improve the dire straits we’re in, but it is being argued by both individuals like Jeff and large industry groups too that it’s not enough and it’s happening too slowly.

Lesley Yates from the AAAA says her organisation and others are working on recruiting more potential mechanics, but there’s no magic silver bullet to solve the problem overnight.

The industry is going out to schools, careers fairs, targeting counsellors, and talking to parents about their kids going into a career in automotive, aiming to align their pitching more with engineering and problem-solving than the traditional view of getting your hands dirty.

“The number-one driver still to get into our industry is a love of cars,” she said.

“But it’s important to think about what ponds people are fishing in. If we're only talking to young men from, say, age 15 to 20, that's a very small part of the population, whereas there's good data to show that people are sometimes coming to the industry at 23 or 24, who might have tried something else first. 

“And we’ve got to think more about women. Right now only about 3 per cent of light vehicle technicians are women.

“Research shows that mature age and career changes, as we call them, do really well in the industry. And people normally get their qualifications in a shorter period of time.”

At the announcement in September last year that Toyota will enter the Supercars Championship with the GR Supra in 2026, Vice President for Sales and Marketing Sean Hanley told media including Drive the move would help increase interest in apprenticeships.

“These people are the doctors of the auto industry, and it's quite a specialised field to be able to say that we are involved with the pinnacle racing event in Australia,” he said. 

“To be able to say that we've got GR racing – we'll have a natural attraction we think for young male and female apprentices to join our Toyota dealerships.”

In a more tangible sense, though, there are also things happening at government level too.

According to a spokesperson for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, “the government is committed to the upskilling of the existing workforce and strengthening the pipeline of EV technicians as EVs are adopted by Australians”.

Furthermore, they told us, “The government is working in partnership with industry, states and territories to deliver training initiatives to build the workforce we need to support our EV industry”.

Those initiatives include: the Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance Jobs and Skills Council developing nationally recognised training products for EV technicians, creating the Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence at the CIT in ACT, investing in electric vehicle projects through the TAFE Technology Fund, and supporting apprentice mechanics who chose work on EVs through the New Energy Apprenticeship Program.

Changes were made to said New Energy Apprenticeship Program in July 2024, with apprentices able to access $10,000 if they meet set criteria – which were also made less strict following heavy criticism from the industry.

In most states, there are EV training courses available through TAFE or private associations, and in some cases this is even free – offering the seven modules Jeff Smit has undertaken.

The positive here too, according to Yates, is that these are offered in “bite-sized chunks”, which makes it easier to send existing mechanics to do them so they’re not off the job for too long.

The $2.5 million refit was funded by the Federal Government, which also in the same week announced a $10K cash incentive for construction apprentices – with the latter not going down well with the auto sector.

"Whilst we support apprenticeship incentives as vital for Australia's skills future, creating a system that favours one industry over another is short-sighted," said Geoff Gwilym, CEO of the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC).

"Getting your car repaired is just as essential as getting a new sink installed. This selective bonus scheme risks diverting aspiring apprentices away from the automotive industry based solely on financial incentives, rather than genuine career interest or industry demand."

The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) agreed.

“This initiative is a welcome boost for apprentices entering residential construction and clean energy careers, but it does little for people aspiring to work in industries outside these sectors, where the skills gap is just as urgent,” said Troy Williams, ITECA Chief Executive.

“Both businesses and aspiring apprentices will miss out.”

With widespread skills shortages in industries spanning agriculture, health and aged care, vehicle repair, ICT, tourism and hospitality, and the resources sector, the government’s announcement misses the bigger picture according to ITECA.

Although the AAAA’s Lesley Yates estimates 25 per cent of automotive workshops nationwide have already done some kind of EV training or are doing it now, a national clear-cut pathway to a qualification is thought to be the best way forward.

In many sectors, traditionally things like licensing and training are set at state-level, but on this issue, the industry argues the shortage of EV mechanics is a national issue and if allowed to worsen will affect take-up.

Only NSW and WA have their own licensing schemes in place requiring technicians to be legally qualified to work on cars. 

NSW in particular is in the process of establishing a qualification for working on electric vehicles; however, while it’s largely agreed putting measures in place is a good thing, the fine print reveals the proposal “sets the bar too high” and would be a case of government “overreaching”.

This is because what NSW is proposing would involve existing mechanics having to effectively undertake a whole other apprenticeship, which would take years and put them back at square one.

“If they introduce a really high bar, that means that workshops may make the decision that it's just too difficult to do EVs. You've got to go back and do a whole EV apprenticeship? That's nuts,” Yates said.

“It would be much better to take some units out of that and then allow our light vehicle technicians to do them in a format that's easily accessible. Some of it online, some of it in person. It's just got to be taken from the perspective of how can we make this easy? 

“And from my perspective, we need to make sure that it's respectful. These are very successful, very smart technicians, and we need to respect their level of knowledge.”

It is time, Yates says, that the Federal Government takes control and “shows some leadership”.

“What the Federal Government says is that the service, maintenance and repair of vehicles belongs to the states. And yeah, sure, we know that. But you're still the Federal Government, you still care a lot about EV take-up in Australia,” she told Drive.

“The reality is what happens in the states is going to affect EV take-up. And the issue about EVs, of course, is that the Federal Government places so much emphasis on the first purchase, when what it needs to be doing is thinking about the whole picture of ownership. It affects first ownership because if my ownership experience isn't good, I'm going to tell someone and that makes EVs look bad.”

Mechanic Jeff Smit agrees qualifications should be nationally handled.

“We need to have a nationally recognised licence – that's the way I believe it should go,” he said.

“But while the states have control of it, they're not going to want to relinquish that. And so we're going to end up with a dog's breakfast of different rules in different states. And while some states have no formal qualifications in the automotive space, why would they suddenly bring one out for EVs? 

“I think we're lucky [in NSW] that we've got some structure and a licensing program, and it’s great they’re saying they’re going to come up with a Certificate III for EVs [for apprentices], but that doesn’t help the rest of the trade like me as a licensed electrician mechanic. I don't want to go through doing a whole cert three again for EVs when the majority of the car is still the same as any other car.”

The approach being taken by NSW has also come under fire from other groups too, such as the Australian Automotive Dealers’ Association (AADA) and Motor Trades Authority NSW.

“In our view, there is no evidence to support the case for further occupational regulation of automotive technicians currently employed by franchised new car dealers,” it said in its submission to the State Government’s consultation.

For context, the AADA invests almost $10 million in training every year and has more than 1700 apprentices.

“The role of government in establishing any licensing infrastructure is to provide the guardrails for that level of competence rather than looking to establish a framework that overextends the competency of the tradesperson,” added the MTAA in its submission.

According to the MTAA, NSW’s proposal “oversteps” and “would function as a disincentive for license holders in NSW, the majority of whom work in small businesses with limited balance sheet profits and provide an inhibitor to the upskilling of the workforce”. 

It’s also a concern that the state’s approach would hinder internal migration of mechanics coming from other states, while international skilled migration remains a challenge due to how long it takes to get workers and high costs.

Praise has been given to the fact the Federal Government has added EV mechanics to the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia list, which acknowledges the need for this role but doesn’t address the immediate gap.

While there is a lot that could be done to improve Australia’s critical shortage of mechanics, though, according to Jeff Smit, we should all be preparing ourselves for the “slow burn”.

“Australians are traditionally late adopters and EVs are going to be the same,” he said.

“It's going to be a slow burn in transition. It's going to happen slower than I think everyone anticipates.”

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

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