Are body shops scared of EVs ?

[maskull]

Had a bit of damage to my driver side sill a few months back . I wanted to avoid an insurance claim so I checked around the local body shops .
Almost to a man they nearly had accidents in their underwear when they saw it was a EV with one saying it would cost about £1500 but they couldn't do it . One even said it's a write off because it was the sill
I was about to go down the insurance road when I found one about 7 miles from me with good local reviews . I rang him up stressing it was an EV and he just said pop it around . I did so and he gave me a quote of £200 ,I had it done a couple of weeks back ,at the quoted price, and I must say he did an excellent job .
The overall question is :- Is this the reason or part of the reason for excessive premiums . We all know that accident repairs sky rocket when they go to insurance for much the same reason as our premiums sky rocket i.e. a captive audience . This is also allied with EV ignorance by the public and even trade

 

[Gadget Geek]

A couple of years ago, Someone went into the back of my Kona, and the Hastings Insurance recommended repairer wouldn't repair an EV. I don't know why. They had to use another body shop who did it with no issues.

I did have to point out to Hastings that THEY had used a non approved repairer when they tried to charge me extra for it.

 

[Rolfe]

I had some very minor damage to a wheel arch and went to a local body repair garage that was recommended to me (by a friend who is quite sceptical of EVs). The owner said, "is it electric?" in a tone of mild interest, and I replied, yes, my pride and joy. He looked at the damage and gave me quotes for both a touch-up job and a full repair.

When I went to collect the car he was on his knees beside the wheel arch giving it a final polish. The workshop was full of ICE vehicles, and he mentioned that the Land Rover parked to one side was his own project, almost finished. We chatted about cars and he spoke about electric conversion of classic cars in generally approving terms. As I turned to leave I saw a home charger on the wall inside the entrance doors.

It hadn't even occurred to me that Caliban's status as an EV would matter one way or the other, and as it turned out it didn't. Was I just lucky in finding a body shop without any anti EV prejudice?

 

[Alb]

I don't think it's about prejudice, just training with respect to the additional hazards.

 

[salty]

I don't think it's about prejudice, just training with respect to the additional hazards.

To a certain extent yes, because, business is business at the end of the day. But also partly about the Hysteria that seems to follow EVs around. And as for the excessive Premiums that's just the insurance companies spotting an opportunity to rip EV drivers off. IMO.

 

[Hairyfool]

My local bodyshop is happy with them but they had heard of some places refusing EVs if welding is required. It could be they are scared of blowing something rather than the actual voltages involved.

 

[Adam C]

Whether it be a garage, body shop, don’t mechanics etc have to have extra training & qualifications to work on electric vehicles. So if it’s a smaller garage would they even bother?

If you search on Google, now this might have changed since but it was reported EVs that have even minor bumps are kept 15 metres apart from other vehicles for safety reasons.

Personally even if I purchased a second hand EV & it was due a service, needed a repair I’d take it to an official dealer just for extra peace of mind.

 

[Alb]

Whether it be a garage, body shop, don’t mechanics etc have to have extra training & qualifications to work on electric vehicles. So if it’s a smaller garage would they even bother?

Absolutely so.
HSE would be all over a garage if one of their employees suffered an injury initiated by working on or near equipment carrying lethal voltage because they didn't know how to work safely.

 

[Adam C]

Absolutely so.
HSE would be all over a garage if one of their employees suffered an injury initiated by working on or near equipment carrying lethal voltage because they didn't know how to work safely.

This is my first EV ( no regrets at all making the switch from ICE ) but until a few months back when I picked it up I never really looked into what happens behind the scenes when it comes to servicing, bodywork repairs.

Watching a few videos, the training involved is long & costly

Garages must have a dedicated space for an EV vehicle. Marked out space for safety when shutting down the battery

The tools, safety equipment costs an absolute fortune, insulated tools, mats to keep workers safe

So no doubt as time goes on & more people switch to EVs we will see less of the smaller back street garages

 

[salty]

This is my first EV ( no regrets at all making the switch from ICE ) but until a few months back when I picked it up I never really looked into what happens behind the scenes when it comes to servicing, bodywork repairs.

Watching a few videos, the training involved is long & costly

Garages must have a dedicated space for an EV vehicle. Marked out space for safety when shutting down the battery

The tools, safety equipment costs an absolute fortune, insulated tools, mats to keep workers safe

So no doubt as time goes on & more people switch to EVs we will see less of the smaller back street garages

Your probably right, can't see,
Fred in his Shed, fixing many EVs.

 

[Adam C]

Your probably right, can't see,
Fred in his Shed, fixing many EVs.

I sat here & said that out loud

“Fred in his shed” I laugh at anything I do

I know there’s some right dodgy garages but there’s still a few smaller decent ones about who do good work & fair prices so it will be a shame to see these disappear over time.

 

[salty]

This is my first EV ( no regrets at all making the switch from ICE ) but until a few months back when I picked it up I never really looked into what happens behind the scenes when it comes to servicing, bodywork repairs.

Watching a few videos, the training involved is long & costly

Garages must have a dedicated space for an EV vehicle. Marked out space for safety when shutting down the battery

The tools, safety equipment costs an absolute fortune, insulated tools, mats to keep workers safe

So no doubt as time goes on & more people switch to EVs we will see less of the smaller back street garages

To be fair though "back street garages" have been dying for a while now. Modern cars are just to complicated for them. It's all plug in diagnosis now. The equipment is just to expensive for small garages. Shame really.

 

[Adam C]

To be fair though "back street garages" have been dying for a while now. Modern cars are just to complicated for them. It's all plug in diagnosis now. The equipment is just to expensive for small garages. Shame really.

Yep very few about now.

I know there’s a few places around the U.K. that do these conversions but we have a company opening here this year ( I believe in August ) that converts older cars to electric

Costs big money but it’ll still be great to see some older classics on the roads again, just not so noisy

 

[TBay]

Having seen an EV car fire (in controlled circumstances as part of my job) and seen the result of lithium fires at recycling facilities I think a lot of the fear comes from the few horror stories going around and associated videos. I workshop full of acetylene and part filled petrol tanks is going to make a hell of a big bang but it’s old school and has been around ages. I think the fear is the spontaneity of possible incidents and some less informed garages therefore just choose to avoid the work if they can.

 

[Ian Key]

For some reason acetylene gas cannisters are thought to be safer than an EV battery. Yes an EV battery will burn hotly and be difficult to put out but it stays where it is and doesn't explode.

A few years ago the maintenance shop at the back of a factory caught fire. The acetylene cylinder exploded. It went through the roof, over the factory, cleared the main road and landed in the forecourt of the petrol station opposite the factory.

 

[andi]

Unless you remove the battery pack. The EVs cannot go into a booth to bake the paint.
This is why it's costly. Unless a local back street paint shop does paintwork the old fashioned way, (no spray booth) you will get a reasonable job at a reasonable price.

 

[MozFromOz]

I recently had to get my Nissan EV repaired on an insurance claim. It took 4 panel shops before I found one who would quote the repair. In the end the insuer wrote it off as uneconomical to repair. I'm now doing the repair myself for about $AUD5K the shops are often terrified of EVs IMO and some are quoting the earth out of ignorance. Of course the manufacturer is also culpable for exorbitant parts prices.

 

[andi]

Well I will find out shortly as a taxi driver took my front bumper off yesterday. MG4 drives fine. Villa Group, I've been told are EV specialists.
See if they write it off or not.

 

[Rolfe]

This podcast is good. At one point Euan McTurk describes a house fire, nothing to do with the car as regards it starting, but which involved an EV - presumably in an integral garage. The entire house burned down around the car, the car itself was a smoking wreck I think, but the battery didn't catch fire.

 

[siteguru]

Was that the Australian house fire, where all the tin foil hat brigade blamed the fire on the EV?