BUSAN — Repair shops say the spread of electric and hybrid vehicles has outpaced the supply of trained technicians, safety training and equipment needed to service them. With the shift to greener vehicles focused on putting cars on the road, the industry argues that support for the repair sector must be built out in parallel to ensure safe servicing and to let residents get work done close to home.
Busan Metropolitan Council members Kim Dong-ha, Lee Yong-woon and Lee Yeol recently held a policy roundtable with the Busan Metropolitan Automobile Repair Business Association on building a safety net for green-vehicle repairs, the council said on the 16th. The meeting covered industry difficulties and possible support measures.
Industry representatives pointed to the cost of retraining technicians for green-vehicle repair technology, difficulty securing hands-on training equipment and a shortage of skilled workers as the main challenges. Because servicing green vehicles involves high-voltage batteries and electrical systems that carry risks of electric shock and fire, they said one-off classroom instruction is not enough and called for practice-based safety training and equipment support.
The possible regional concentration of repair networks was also raised. If electric-vehicle servicing is concentrated at a handful of manufacturer-run centers and large repair chains, wait times and costs for residents could rise, the participants said, arguing that the technical capacity of independent repair shops in local neighborhoods should be raised to secure access. Participants also proposed correcting the imbalance between budgets for green-vehicle adoption and for repair safety, and training younger technicians.
"We need to compare other regions' support for training costs and equipment, along with their policies for cultivating specialists in next-generation vehicles, and design a Busan-specific support package," Kim said. Lee Yong-woon said, "To keep the repair training program under review for next year from being a one-time effort, we will analyze on-the-ground demand and program results and expand it in stages." Lee Yeol said, "High-voltage safety training and the build-out of hands-on training facilities should be strengthened together."
The three council members plan to take up the views raised at the roundtable with relevant Busan city departments and to review how they can be reflected in next year's budget and in future programs for repair training, safety management and hands-on training equipment.