EV Bharat: Is India workforce ready for the Electric Vehicle market?

What is India’s situation regarding talent or expertise in Electric Vehicle (EV) technology for the upcoming EV market?

India is undoubtedly heading for an all Electric Vehicle nation as a part of its effort to achieve the net zero emissions by 2070 as promised at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) held at Glasgow.

Read more: Environmental CSR on the rise as developed nations lead the way for eco-innovation

However, the Senior Executive Director (Engineering) at Maruti Suzuki, the top Indian car maker, predicted that almost every EV company in India is going to face challenges of talent acquisition and development.

Is India ready with a workforce that can deal with the required technology and handling? Are Indian youth aware of the EV ecosystem as a potential career?

The Tech Panda spoke to Ashwini Tiwary, Co-founder of Autobot India about India’s situation regarding talent or expertise in EV technology.

Even if a modest 5% of this workforce is to be trained on EV technologies in the short-term, that’s a need for over a million trained personnel. To achieve success, there is a need to build infrastructure in tandem with research and training facilities

“The EV sector is going to grow huge, really big. The government is targeting 10% of all vehicles being EVs by 2025, and that itself would mean about one crore EVs on road. That’s a humongous market. Further, 30% of the automobile sector turning into EV-oriented industry would lead to generation of over 2.15 crore jobs,” he explains.

“Even if a modest 5% of this workforce is to be trained on EV technologies in the short-term, that’s a need for over a million trained personnel. To achieve success, there is a need to build infrastructure in tandem with research and training facilities,” he says.

Are enough youth even opting for a career in EV technology? Tiwary says the kind of statistics his startup is witnessing are encouraging.

The current traditional automotive industry employs approximately six crore employees direct and indirect, where 40-50% of its employees are looking to shift their career into EVs as a part of their future job security

“Every year approx. 30-35 lakhs of engineers pass out from engineering campuses in India from core disciplines of engineering (as per Govt. of India statistics) which is a recurring number YoY.

“With the unique technology profile of Electric Vehicles, which is a merger of all major streams of engineering irrespective of traditional ICE technology, this uniqueness has given the wider spectrum to transform youth on this technology in the various domains and applications which is quite wide and not only dependent on automotive but Energy Storage, Advance Electronics, Energy Management, Fuel Cell, Renewable Energy, Telecom, etc.,” he explains.

He further adds that the current traditional automotive industry employs approximately six crore employees direct and indirect, where 40-50% of its employees are looking to shift their career into EVs as a part of their future job security.

So, how does one become an EV expert? What courses do they opt for?

India has a huge and rapidly growing need for people with EV technology exposure and expertise. As of now there is a severe shortage of such personnel. There haven’t been any specific courses

“India has a huge and rapidly growing need for people with EV technology exposure and expertise. As of now there is a severe shortage of such personnel. There haven’t been any specific courses,” he says.

This is where Autobot Academy is aiming to lead the charge with its innovation and technology-based training for anyone aspiring to enter the EV sector. It has launched specialized certifications in EV technology learning. After introducing offline learning in its initial days, it has now launched virtual training.

“Now there is a complete blended training system in place which is going to be scalable and sustainable as per the industry’s needs,” he says.

Read more: EV Bharat: What’s stopping Indian Electric Vehicles from ruling the road?

Recently, Hero Electric and ReadyAssist, a 24/7 roadside assistance company, joined hands to train and upskill 20,000 mechanics for servicing EVs under its Private Garage Owners (PGO) initiative. With the rising EV demand, Hero Electric is focused on reskilling technician competence to build a robust EV ecosystem in India.

India has more than three million mechanics who need upskilling and reskilling to ensure their skills are at par with the growing EV market.