Mr Viral
Editor’s Note: Nearly seven in 10 new energy vehicles sold globally are tied to China, driving shifts in industries and trade at home and abroad. This is the last article in a five-part series exploring China’s electric vehicle boom — and the people building, driving, and fixing its future. Read Parts One, Two, Three, and Four.
JIANGSU, Eastern China — Wu Jingdong believed he could fix anything. The 51-year-old mechanic had spent three decades repairing and fine-tuning vehicles of every kind, even driving tanks during his military service.
Then, in 2023, an electric car rolled into his workshop in northeastern China’s Liaoning province, where EVs are still rare. A simple request to add air conditioning refrigerant exposed just how unprepared he was.
Wu used the same refrigerant he’d relied on for years — and learned too late that EVs need an insulated one. “Using the wrong one in EVs can cause insulation failures and lead to malfunctions,” he says.
That elementary mistake was a glimpse of what lay ahead. With domestic EV sales surging, Wu was convinced that the new technology would transform the auto industry, much like the switch to electronic fuel injection in the 1990s.
By August, Wu had completed a crash course in EV maintenance and relocated to Suzhou in eastern China, a city at the forefront of the country’s electric vehicle boom.
China’s race toward clean energy has put EVs front and center, now accounting for more than half of all new car sales. But this rapid transformation is exposing cracks in its auto repair ecosystem.
Unlike gasoline cars, EVs run on complex electrical systems. Fixing them requires not just mechanical know-how, but precision tools, rigorous testing, and an entirely new skill set. Few repair shops are equipped to handle the shift, and training programs are costly, time-consuming, and often outdated.
And with the first wave of EVs now running out of warranty, consumers are increasingly complaining about the limited repair options and long wait times for out-of-warranty maintenance.
The challenge isn’t limited to individuals like Wu — China’s entire repair industry faces a massive shortfall. By 2025, the EV sector will require 1.2 million workers, but a talent gap of over 1 million remains, with 80% of the shortage in after-sales services.
The imbalance is striking. China has 397,000 repair shops for gasoline-powered vehicles but fewer than 20,000 specializing in EVs. That’s just over one service center for every 1,000 electric cars on the road.
Meanwhile, fewer than 100,000 workers are currently trained to handle EV repairs, with critical gaps in skills like battery testing, big data analysis, and autonomous driving technologies.
To bridge the growing gap, vocational schools are updating their programs, teaching technicians to decode the intricate systems of electric vehicles. Business owners are stepping in with hands-on training, and rising pay hints at a brighter future for the trade.
Still, the shift is slow, and millions of EVs are already on the road. Whether China can train enough skilled hands to keep them running may determine if its electric revolution stays on course.
Learning curve
Just days after its warranty expired this past August, Wu Jiasong’s EV ground to an abrupt halt in Shanghai. The culprit wasn’t the battery or the motor, but a DC/DC converter — a small, critical part about the size of a shoebox.
It converts high-voltage power from the main battery into low-voltage energy for essentials like the lights, dashboard, and air conditioning. Without it, the car simply shuts down, no matter how full the main battery is.
The 40-year-old ride-hailing driver waited a week for the repair, forced to rely on the car manufacturer to troubleshoot the issue since the dealership couldn’t identify the problem. “With my gasoline car, I could find a mechanic who’d fix it in three days,” says Wu. “With an EV, if they don’t know what’s wrong, you’re stuck.”
His frustration underscores the core difference between EVs and traditional gasoline cars. “With fuel cars, I can figure out what’s wrong just by looking at it,” says Wu, the mechanic. “But with EVs, I have to read circuit diagrams and take measurements. Less instinct, more precision.”
“EVs operate on high-voltage systems, ranging from 400 to 700 volts,” Wan, a professor of vehicle engineering at a vocational university in Jiangsu, tells Sixth Tone, requesting to be identified only by his surname citing privacy concerns. “It’s no longer about mechanical know-how. You need precision tools, careful testing, and expertise in high-voltage systems.”
This stark shift in technology and tools led Wu back to school in June 2024.
The 51-year-old enrolled in a 12-day training course at Tianjin Lockda Auto Technology, a company specializing in EV services including training, development and sales of specialized diagnostic equipment, and remote technical support.
“The fastest way to learn is through both theory and hands-on practice,” Wu explains. But even here, progress wasn’t easy. The lessons were rushed, outdated, and focused on only a few common models.
Training courses for EV repair are widely advertised online, but the costs are steep — often exceeding 10,000 yuan ($1,400) — and the quality varies. “The teacher shares the basic principles with you, but the rest is up to you to figure out,” Wu recalls.
But Wu had an advantage. His decades of working on the low-voltage systems in gasoline cars gave him a head start. Spending nearly 7,000 yuan on tuition, he learned the basic principles of EVs, along with diagnostic methods for EV-specific issues like charging failures.
“If you’re familiar with wiring in gasoline cars, you can pick it up quickly,” Wu says. “But for someone with no experience, it could take years to truly understand the technology.”
EV repairs demand theoretical knowledge of electricity and physics. Without it, Wu underscores, “you might know what’s wrong, but not why it happened or how to fix it.”
After completing his coursework, he spent 40 days interning at an EV repair shop. And to become fully qualified, Wu also obtained an official certificate in EV inspection and repair issued by the Ministry of Transport and a low-voltage electrician’s certificate, necessary for working on equipment operating below 1 kilovolt.
Yet Wu remains one of the few. A recent survey by the China Automotive Maintenance and Repair Trade Association found that just under a quarter of China’s existing repair technicians hold the low-voltage electrician certification needed for EV repairs.
“Compared to the mature ecosystem for traditional fuel vehicles, the maintenance service structure for EVs is still in its infancy and has not yet been able to match the performance of the whole vehicle market,” Zhang Yanhua, the president of the trade association, said at the China EV100 Forum last March.
Jump start
For those willing to adapt, the payoff comes quicker than expected. Last August, Wu joined Ruilaiman New Energy Repairs as its head mechanic in Suzhou, earning a substantial pay hike.
Spanning 2,400 square meters, the workshop hums with high-voltage testing tools, precision diagnostics, and laser welders for intricate battery work — equipment Wu had never handled before.
The firm is among the few independent shops in Suzhou ready to handle the coming tide of EVs.
It took nearly three years for the company to build the workshop into what it is today. They began transitioning from fuel-powered car repairs to specializing in EVs in 2021, when domestic sales rocketed 157.8% to over 3.5 million units.
As the first wave of those vehicles begins to age out of warranty, independent repair shops like Ruilaiman are preparing for a surge in demand. “We’re still in the early stages of the new energy aftermarket,” says Duan Jie, one of the shop’s owners. “But we’re optimistic about its potential.”
Warranties on EVs often last three to eight years, and most consumers currently rely on dealerships — known locally as 4S shops (sales, spare parts, service, and surveys) — or authorized service centers for free repairs.
But those warranties don’t cover everything: damage caused by human error, improper use, or unauthorized modifications leaves drivers on their own.
According to data from CINDA Securities, a domestic investment and consulting firm, China’s passenger car aftermarket is expected to reach nearly two trillion yuan by 2025, with nearly 15% — around 300 billion yuan—coming from EV repair and maintenance.
Yet entering the EV aftersales market is far more challenging than traditional auto repair.
Workshops must secure costly authorizations from manufacturers, particularly for repairing high-voltage batteries. These barriers make independent businesses relatively rare, even in Suzhou — a city where EV market penetration reached nearly 37% in 2023, among the highest in the country.
“For instance, battery repair has a high resource threshold, meaning the qualification requirements are relatively strict,” explains Duan. “You need authorization from manufacturers, certified technicians, and specialized equipment to meet their standards.”
Take CATL, China’s leading power battery manufacturer, which makes just under half the batteries used in Chinese-made EVs in 2024. The company requires authorized service agents to have a workshop of at least 700 square meters and employ at least two qualified mechanics with low-voltage electrician certificates.
Despite the high entry barrier, Ruilaiman has secured authorizations from nine major Chinese battery manufacturers, including CATL and Gotion High-Tech. Some brands also charge additional fees, often in the hundreds of thousands of yuan, for such authorizations.
Beyond the strict requirements, the cost of staying operational is steep too. Ruilaiman pays over 70,000 yuan a month in rent and has invested heavily in specialized equipment. The laser welding machine for battery cell repairs alone costs more than 200,000 yuan.
These high costs, and the expertise required, create a steep barrier for many traditional repair shops. Several owners in Shanghai told Sixth Tone they lack the qualifications or resources to enter the EV market, and consider it dangerous to attempt repairs without proper certification.
“New energy vehicles are not yet fully mature in terms of repair work,” says A’jian, who runs a much smaller auto repair shop in Shanghai, who spoke with Sixth Tone using a pseudonym. “There are still safety hazards, high-voltage electricity isn’t very safe. If there’s a fire, there’s often no way to save the situation.”
The risks are compounded by low demand for EV repairs, at least for now. Unlike gasoline cars, which require frequent servicing like oil changes, EVs have fewer routine maintenance needs, especially while under warranty.
Still, demand is emerging. At Ruilaiman, the bulk of EV repair and maintenance jobs come from local ride-hailing companies whose fleets are now aging out of warranty. The workshop has partnered with seven companies, handling 25 to 30 cars a day, offering a glimpse of what’s to come as millions more EVs exit warranty coverage in the years ahead.
For Wu, his new role as head mechanic isn’t entirely unfamiliar. “About 70% of the work is similar to fuel-powered cars — issues with the chassis, steering, and brakes,” he says.
It’s the remaining 30% that pushes him into uncharted territory: diagnosing and repairing high-voltage systems unique to EVs, including battery packs, electric motors, inverters, and control units. This demands specialized skills — like reading circuit diagrams and using precision tools such as insulation resistance testers, multimeters, and clamp meters.
“Each component has a different structure and operating principle,” Wu explains. “But as long as you know how to analyze them, the task is manageable.”
Still, some problems are beyond the team’s scope. For intricate tasks, like fixing the car’s onboard computer, Wu’s workshop relies on external electronics specialists or the manufacturers themselves. “I’d have to study microelectronics for at least a year to get a handle on it,” he admits.
For the moment, there’s only so much Wu and his team can do. As EVs continue to become more advanced, keeping up with the technology will take more than just hard work — it will require better tools, more training, and time.
Filling the void
Individuals like Wu may have found their footing, but it’s far from the norm. To stave off a growing skills gap, China’s vocational schools are stepping up to meet the demand for skilled EV technicians.
According to a domestic media report, nearly half of China’s vocational colleges offered specialized EV programs in 2023, nearly 1.5 times the number in 2018.
In Jiangsu province, Professor Wan has led this charge. In 2020, his college overhauled its traditional automotive repair program into a dedicated EV curriculum, focusing on after-sales service, engineering design, and manufacturing.
“Mechanical failures in EVs are becoming rarer,” Wan explains. “Now, it’s more about electrical malfunctions and software-related issues. Technicians need to learn to decode data, not just replace parts.”
The shift has brought a wave of new interest. “Our enrollment has improved compared to the old program, as more parents and students recognize that EVs are becoming the norm,” says Wan, adding that rising demand has now pushed up the test scores required for admission.
Meanwhile, lessons focused solely on fuel engines are fading. “We no longer run dedicated courses on things like car engines,” Wan explains. “They may still be covered briefly in other classes, but the focus is on EVs.”
And to keep pace with industry advancements, the school has also partnered with EV manufacturers and suppliers of key components, offering students hands-on internships with real-world systems.
Duan, the workshop owner, sees value in collaborating with local vocational schools. He plans to offer internships, believing that formally trained students bring fresh strengths to the trade.
“Young technicians with theoretical backgrounds may not be as quick at assembly and disassembly,” says Duan, “but their problem-solving skills and judgment are often sharper than those who’ve learned purely through hands-on experience.”
Still, Duan and Wan both acknowledge the hurdles in attracting young talent to auto repair — a trade long seen as physically demanding, with limited career growth.
For now, salaries remain a major barrier. Duan says that in Suzhou, experienced technicians earn around 10,000 yuan a month. In Beijing, listings on job platform Boss Zhipin show salaries reaching up to 15,000 yuan for gasoline car mechanics with more than a decade of experience.
But nationally, the average monthly pay for auto repair technicians stood at just 6,593 yuan in December, according to the same platform.
And as demand for skilled EV technicians grows, so too does the potential for higher pay. For Wu, that shift is already paying off: since transitioning to EV repair, his monthly salary has risen by nearly 3,000 yuan.
After all the months of training and adjustment, Wu feels prepared for what’s ahead. “We’ve been working hard for this moment,” he says. “When the technology takes over, we’ll be ready.”
For traditional repair shops like A’jian’s in Shanghai, that future feels less certain. Millions of gasoline cars still keep his garage afloat, but the EV boom is forcing him to adapt, exploring repair training and improving services like tire changes and paint jobs to stay in the game.
“This industry won’t disappear,” says A’jian. “As long as there are cars — even if they fly through the skies one day — there will always be something to fix.”
Editor: Apurva.
(Header image: Xinhua)
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