I think the push for all-electric shops is moving way too fast

Last month at our shop in Tacoma, we had a customer's new EV come in with a battery fault code. The scan tool said it was a high-voltage isolation fault, but we had to wait two days for the certified EV tech to drive over from Seattle just to confirm it. We're a full-service shop with five bays, but we can't even clear basic EV codes ourselves without special training and gear that costs more than a new lift. Everyone acts like we're dinosaurs if we don't go all-in right now, but the tooling and training costs are insane for a small shop. How are other independent places handling this without going broke?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameronn6210d ago

What if the real money is in being the last gas specialist in town?

finley_price2410d ago

Saw a piece about that in the local paper last week.

patriciah515d ago

Ugh, that's rough. My buddy runs a shop in Spokane. He got a used EV in with a weird battery warning light. His regular scanner just threw gibberish. Had to flatbed the thing to the dealer forty miles away. They charged the customer a fortune just to plug in their special computer. He said the whole thing felt pointless, like he was just a middleman. The profit on that job was zero after the tow bill. It's killing the small shop model.