How U.S. shops are taking on EVs

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Nearly three quarters of American automotive repair and service shops are servicing hybrid electric vehicles and more than half attribute a portion of the business to battery electric vehicles.

AutomotiveResearch.com surveyed 5,000 independent automotive repair shops to gauge service and repair levels of hybrids and battery electric vehicles (HEV and BEV).

While many reported that they work on such vehicles, business in this area is still small. Of the 72 per cent of independent repair shops that indicated a portion of their business is from servicing HEVs, these vehicles represent 5.9 per cent of business on average.

Of the 55 per cent of shops that reported business coming from servicing BEVs, these vehicles make up 3.9 per cent of business on average.

The smaller the shop, the less amount of business HEVs and BEVs will make up. Shops with one to three bays saw 3 per cent of business form BEVs and 4.3 per cent of business coming from HEVs. Shops with eight or more bays reported 5.5 per cent of their business from BEVs and 7.7 from hybrids.

For those that service hybrids, almost all — 96 per cent — have seen business increase in the last two years. However, of those that service BEVs and HEVs, 58 per cent said they don’t specifically market or advertise that their shop has the capability to service such vehicles.

When looking at all shops interviewed, four in 10 (42 per cent) said they have invested in tools and equipment to service BEVs and HEVs while about the same (41 per cent) have invested in training for their technicians on BEV and HEV service and repair.

Almost half (47%) of shops said they believe the increasing number of battery and hybrid vehicles on the road will impact their business over the next two years. That means 38 per cent don’t believe there will be an impact with 15 per cent saying they don’t know when that impact might be, if at all.

Of the 38% of shops that don’t believe the increasing number of BEVs and HEVs on the road will impact their business in the next two years, 42 per cent believe it will take 10 years or longer to see an impact; 19% don’t believe there will ever be an impact on their business from these vehicles.