Electric vehicles could be worth £51bn to the economy

An independent academic report, published on 13th April has called for the Government to make significant investment in infrastructure and skills development of the UK motor industry. It warns that otherwise it will risk missing out on significant economic benefits in the future.

The report was written by Professor Jim Saker of Loughborough University. He advised that 320,000 jobs could be created and in turn £51 billion each year created for the UK economy. However this is reliant on the Government making strategic plans to charge low emission cars at the convenience of the driver and to ensure there are skilled persons to service and repair them.

Sakers suggestion is to make it a requirement that skilled technicians work on electric and hybrid vehicles. They should hold a licence to practice which will encourage investment in training. Professor Jim Saker said:

“The UK by the nature of its size and geography has a natural advantage in the rapid adoption of vehicles with the new power train technologies, but it is dependent on Government investment to pump prime this initiative.” “Without proper regulation a skills gap will emerge with only a limited number of technicians working in the franchised sector being able to service and repair new technology vehicles. If this trend is found to be true then it is likely that the independent sector of the retail automotive sector will decline. This will mean that the market will fail to open up and develop to the benefit of the UK economy.” Steve Nash, IMI CEO said:

“The potential growth for the UK economy is immense, and we are calling on the Government to act now in order to reap the financial rewards. To avoid further skills shortages across the sector there is an urgent need for a higher skilled workforce.” “We have seen growth of more than 20% in alternatively fuelled vehicles with Tesla announcing orders of £7bn in only two days for their new model. It’s vital we take the appropriate steps now if we want to ensure that the UK has the skilled workforce it needs across the whole industry to support and service these vehicles.” “This will only be possible if appropriate actions are taken with some urgency to avoid a serious and growing skills shortage, most particularly in the non-franchised part of the automotive sector."