Q&A: More Africans are buying EVs, but where are the technicians?

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It is inevitable that as an electric vehicle owner, you will need to take your car to a technician at some point for maintenance. In Africa, there is no guarantee that you will find an EV technician, especially one that is qualified. Yet it is a career that is extremely rewarding, says Atsu Kpodo, a Ghanaian EV technician in an interview with Mobility Rising.   

• Mr Kpodo worked at French automotive giant Renault and South Korean car manufacturer Kia as a technician working on internal combustion engine vehicles. In 2022, he left to join an EV startup as a technician and hasn’t looked back since.

• As an EV technician diagnoses, repairs, and maintains electric vehicles, focusing on their unique electrical, electronic, and mechanical systems. He works on high-voltage batteries and other specialised components, requiring specialised training and tools. 

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As an EV technician, what exactly do you do on a day-to-day basis?

Mr Kpodo: This entails a lot because electric vehicles are not about engines (like ICE vehicles). Now, if you have a new vehicle, it's basically about service. People think that electric vehicles demand less service. It's not true. They require more attention than engine vehicles, because you need to know everything that is going on in there. And to do that, you need a diagnostic tool. It's not like those days when you listen to the sound to know if there is something wrong with the engine. Now you need technologies that can look inside your battery, that can look inside your motor to see what is going on. What are the parameters that this motor is working with? The torques, the resistance, the current that is flowing, the voltages and all the installations.  

How did you become an EV technician, and what has been your experience in the industry

Mr Kpodo: First of all, I was an automotive technician with dealership experience from Renault and Kia, where I had a lot of training. In 2022, I was at Kia and I got an offer to work for a startup, which is in the EV business. At the time, EV were not that common in Africa. It was a bit of a tough decision, but I considered the potential of the industry. A lot of people were surprised that I was leaving a big dealership like Kia to join an EV startup but it has paid off.  

There is concern that there are not enough trained EV technicians in Africa. From your experience, how true is that?

Mr Kpodo: This major challenge that EVs will be having in Africa, because currently in Ghana, yes, there is a company that were the pioneers in the sector five years ago when they started. All the technicians that went there were trained by the company. But now, the new EV companies that are coming up are not ready to train anybody. Everybody wants someone who has the skills already. So it's a bigger challenge in the whole of Africa, especially Ghana, right now, because the moment you have the skills, some other company wants you for those specific skills. They don't want to take somebody new and train them. They want you to have the skill to work for them. The new companies all have to engage in training, it's very fundamental. But there is no funding and organisations that will establish these trainings in Africa.

Are universities and colleges in Ghana now teaching relevant courses for EV technicians?

Mr Kpodo: Even in Ghana, I think probably two universities have actually made a step to start these types of training.  One of them contacted me to lead their training before I left Ghana. They are all behind, because looking at where EV technologies have reached, that we're even going to autonomous and AI technologies, and they are now coming to start teaching basic information about electric vehicles. We need individual NGOs to come in, set up training institutes, and governments establish whole training centers that can train at least 100 technicians a year for every country to make an impact.  

What are the most common issues that you face whenever an electric car is brought in to be fixed?

Mr Kpodo: When I was in Africa, people bought a lot of used electric vehicles from China, but most of these vehicles are used. You find that a vehicle has been used in China for five or six years where it was using a fast DC charger which makes the batteries weaker. It means the battery health will drop from 100% to around 80% or 70% which is a standard or recommended stage where the battery needs to be replaced. But because we want cheaper ones, they sell them to us. The highest proportion of work I did was on the batteries, because when the cars come in, everybody imports an EV, and they sit on the ship for at least three months before getting to the location.

How often should an EV owner take their car for diagnostics and maintenance?

Mr Kpodo: They should go with the dealers or the manufacturers’ (OEM) standard and their cycles, or the intervals. For example, one car can recommend service at the first service at 3500 km, and the subsequent services at 20,000 km, which could be a year or two years, depending on how you use your vehicle. My best recommendation is, if you buy that vehicle new you should make sure you keep your first service in check, which is at 3,500 km, and if it we didn't make even the 20,000 km in a year by the end of the year, you should have one service at least, because a new vehicle will hardly give you a breaking issue. Before any problems will come in, it's always recommended that you have at least one service in a year, even if you don't have any problems before. At least a year after the first service, at least a year should be good. Once a year should be good.