As Singapore moves towards EVS, labour shortages threaten survival of small workshops
Electric vehicle-related training is not a problem, say workshops, if workers can be found
AS SINGAPORE’S automotive landscape moves towards electric vehicles (EVS), which require less maintenance, smaller workshops may face less demand.
But their ability to supply services is also being threatened – due not to a lack of technology or Ev-related training, but a lack of technicians.
Michael Keh, a representative of the Singapore Motor Workshop Association (SMWA), told The Business Times that in the longer term, smaller workshops “might slowly die out”.
“From my perspective, any small workshop can become Ev-ready,” said SMWA’S Keh. Rather, workshops suffer from manpower shortages, he added.
He noted that subsidised Ev-related training is provided under the National Electric Vehicle Specialist Safety (NESS) programme.
Launched by the Land Transport Authority and Skillsfuture Singapore in 2022, the NESS trains and certifies professionals in EV maintenance and servicing.
Courses cost around S$2,000 to S$3,000 before subsidies, and around S$1,000 or less after Skillsfuture grants. They are subsidised for Singaporeans and permanent residents.
According to figures on the Skillsfuture website, around 1,000 people have attended NESS courses to date, although not all of them are technicians.
Keh estimates that there are around 2,000 workshops in Singapore employing around 10,000 technicians.
Nothing without labour
While courses exist, hiring employees to send for training is the true difficulty.
Small workshops told BT that their main problem is a shortage of labour, due to a lack of Singaporean technicians and issues with training foreign ones.
Henry Liang, the sole proprietor of Autoforce Service Centre, said: “It’s not that (small workshops) don’t know how to service EVS or hybrids. We simply can’t find the people to do the work.”
“Finding Singaporean technicians is very hard for small workshops. We are really very, very short on labour,” he added.
He said Singaporean technicians expect higher salaries than foreign workers, and most prefer to work for larger outfits whose benefits, such as medical insurance and days off, are more generous.
EVS may have more complex computer systems with proprietary software, limiting third-party workshops’ ability to repair them.
Josephine Tong, a representative of workshop Lian Aik Tyre & Battery, said the supply of technicians is limited as technical education graduates prefer larger organisations.
They also prefer to be service advisers, who face customers and liaise with the technicians, rather than mechanics, she added.
Foreign technicians on an S Pass or Work Pass are easier to find, said the workshops. But under Ministry of Manpower rules, such hires cannot form more than 35 per cent of the company’s workforce.
Nor is it straightforward to train foreign technicians to be Ev-capable.
Some electrical aptitude is needed, unlike training to service internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, said Liang, who is also SMWA vice-president.
“I have attended the (NESS) training myself and it requires one to understand scientific concepts like Faraday’s Law,” he said, adding that some foreign technicians may not have the requisite educational background to understand the course.
Tong noted a high turnover of foreign technicians, who tend to stay with a company from a few months to around two years on average, which means it does not make business sense to sponsor them for EV training.
Liang agreed that while sponsoring a foreign technician’s training is financially feasible, there is no guarantee that a trained worker will stay on.
“We could get them to sign a contract, but we don’t really want to take legal action if they break it. It’s expensive and time-consuming and doesn’t benefit anyone. If they leave the country, it also can’t be enforced anyway,” he said.
EV shift in aftersales
Beyond labour issues, the shift to EVS could change the automotive aftersales landscape.
“The big question on everyone’s mind is: Will the jobs be coming in?” said SMWA’S Keh.
The shift to EVS may reduce the work available to smaller, non-franchised workshops because EVS require less maintenance than ICE cars.
According to a study by the Argonne National Laboratory in the US, the maintenance cost per mile for EVS is 41 per cent less than that of an ICE car, as EVS require less service in the areas of powertrain, filters, fluids and brakes.
The BYD Atto 3, which was the bestselling car in Singapore from February to April, has a six-year or 150,000 km warranty – more generous than the industry standard ICE car warranty of three-years or 100,000 km.
EVS also have longer warranties – typically around eight years – covering the battery alone, which is the most expensive component.
EVS may have more complex computer systems with proprietary software, limiting third-party workshops’ ability to repair them.
For all these reasons, the number of smaller workshops may decrease in the next decade, said Keh.
According to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the number of companies engaged in vehicle repair and maintenance increased to 3,555 in 2023, from 3,267 in 2020.
But in the same period, the number of such sole proprietorships fell to 1,374 from 1,431.