Businesses face bottlenecks for EV servicing work and replacement parts

24982543 – charging of an electric car

Accelerating sales of EVs to fleets is creating bottlenecks in servicing and maintenance networks.

That’s the conclusion of the Leasing Outlook from the leasing association the British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association (BVRLA.)

In its Market Summary for August it said: “In areas such as service, maintenance and repair, the imbalance between fleet and retail demand for electric vehicles is having serious consequences.

“Dealers and workshops are understandably keeping their investment in the tools and training to support EVs in line with market uptake.

“But with fleet adoption of battery-powered vehicles running three times ahead of the market as a whole, leasing companies are experiencing bottlenecks in trying to access SMR work,” it said.

“This lack of capacity is exacerbated by supply chain delays in sourcing replacement parts, with one leasing director commenting that everything on an EV appears to be bespoke, including tyres and windscreens.”

“Moves are afoot to expand maintenance networks, but leasing companies still report that some tenders are trying to impose service level agreements that reflect yesterday’s SMR provision, rather than today’s curta

iled capacity.

“The reality is that the market is not yet able to provide the service that our customers would like, and that impacts negatively on our customers’ perception of us,” said one director, referring directly to EVs.

The situation is compounded by inflation pushing up the prices of lubricants, tyres, parts and labour rates for both ICE and electric vehicles.