Luxury British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has announced to retrain 29,000 employees and staff at retailers globally over the next three years to design, build and service electric vehicles (EVs) ahead of its shift away from fossil-fuel cars.
The unit of India’s Tata Motors said the majority of technicians at its retailers should receive training on servicing EVs during this financial year to “tackle emerging skills gaps”.
The shift to EVs means carmakers need to provide fresh skills to workers trained to make and service fossil-fuel models.
There are widespread concerns that fewer moving parts in EVs could mean fewer well-paid manufacturing jobs in the auto industry, especially in engine or transmission plants.
Barbara Bergmeier, Jaguar Land Rover Industrial Operations Executive Director, commented: “Our plans to electrify our product portfolio are running at pace, and we are rapidly scaling up our future skills training program to ensure we have the right talent to deliver the world’s most desirable modern luxury electric vehicles”.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said it would retrain “thousands of highly skilled automotive engineers and production employees, who previously worked on the development of internal combustion cars, to specialize in electrification, digital and autonomous cars.”
EV sales have risen sharply in Europe over the last two years and looming fossil-fuel car bans mean more are coming. JLR’s luxury Jaguar brand will be entirely electric by 2025 and the carmaker will launch electric versions of its entire line-up by 2030.
JLR has developed its training materials in cooperation with the University of Coventry and the University of Warwick.
“Plant employees at all levels will require training to ensure they can work safely alongside the high voltage systems,” JLR said.
As well as technicians, Jaguar Land Rover plans to retrain thousands of highly skilled automotive engineers and production employees, who previously worked on the development of internal combustion cars, to specialize in electrification, digital and autonomous cars.
Karl “Freddy” Gunnarsson, an engineer who worked at JLR on diesel and petrol catalytic converters, has already retrained and is working on a team dedicated to increasing EV battery density to maximize vehicle range.
“This (EV range) is what we’re going to be competing on, Gunnarsson added. “So on this side of the business, you can feel the excitement up to the CEO.”
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