An annual road trip that aims to dispel myths about electric vehicles stopped outside Pittsburgh Monday to highlight a novel training program for EV mechanics.
For the past three years, Daphne Dixon of the Clean Transportation Coalition of Western Connecticut, has taken a cross-country road trip in an electric car — to show that it’s possible, and even fun.
This year, she’s traveling a 2,500 mile east coast loop from Massachusetts, through Pennsylvania, to Kentucky and back.
Dixon toured the training lab for the Community College of Allegheny County’s registered EV technician apprenticeship program, which was the first of its kind nationwide. The first cohort of 12 students started in April and are on track to be certified this December.
CCAC professor Bob Koch, who oversees the apprenticeship program, said there are about 50 people interested in the course. The college hopes to begin the next cohort in September.
The program is split between classroom training where students learn the basics of high voltage systems in battery electric vehicles and hands-on work in the Oakdale campus’s auto garage. Students, who are already trained auto mechanics, finish the program working at partner dealerships.
The recent federal spending plan ends an EV tax credit created under President Joe Biden after Sept. 30. The credits allowed buyers to shave up to $7,500 off the purchase price of certain EVs. Some analysts believe the end of the credits will cause EV sales to shrink by one third.
Dixon said the market has developed a lot over the last decade, costs of battery manufacturing have fallen, and she’s confident that sales of EVs will only keep growing.
Koch said he thinks interest in the EV apprenticeship program will remain strong as long as EVs are still running.
Dixon said she wants to take CCAC’s example back home to Connecticut to work with community colleges there that do not have similar programs.
On her trip, Dixon is also assessing EV charging sites to see how the user experience can be improved by factors such as lighting, shelter, and retractable charging cords. She said some of those issues can be addressed in local zoning codes.
Dixon said range anxiety, or the worry some drivers have that an EV’s battery will drain before it reaches the next charger, is “a choice.”
“Like any road trip, it’s an adventure. With an EV, it does take a little more planning, but the journey along the way is so much sweeter,” Dixon said, adding it feels good to know she’s contributing fewer harmful emissions in an electric car.
EVs do not produce tailpipe emissions. Studies have found that, even when an EV gets its electricity from a grid powered with coal, it still is responsible for fewer emissions than a traditional, gas burning car.
