Dangers Of Electric Cars

Mechanics with no specialist training risk death when fixing electric cars.

16:45 18 January 2016

The motor industry has warned that unless the government takes action, unqualified mechanics may die, and even kill their customers in the process, once they start fixing electric cars.

 

The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) is set to launch a campaign in the next few weeks to persuade Whitehall to set new regulations to ensure that mechanics are properly trained to work with electric cars.

 

Steve Nash, the IMI’s chief executive, said: “Sooner or later somebody is going to attempt to do something they shouldn’t do and they are going to fry themselves. That will either be the person working on it who gets a 600- or 700-volt shock or it might be a member of the public exposed to a fire risk.”

 

“It’s that serious. It’s not scaremongering. It’s real.”

 

He added: “We need people who are at least qualified to the level where they know how to make the car safe before even trying the routine things like working on the brakes. There is the very real risk that someone might say, ‘Well, I’ll have a go.’

 

“They [electric motors] are potentially lethal if people don’t know what they should do on them.”