The UK’s EV skills debate has dominated industry conversation for the past few years, and with good reason, writes Marcel Wendt, CTO and founder of Digidentity.
The pressures are well documented: a shrinking window before the government’s 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales, and the number of newly certified EV technicians falling rather than rising.
The IMI’s latest TechSafe data found that just 26% of UK technicians held an EV qualification by the end of Q3 2025, with the shortfall forecast to exceed 44,000 by 2035.
Training matters, and the sector is right to prioritise it. But there is a second barrier that receives far less attention.
Even fully qualified technicians often cannot access the diagnostic and software systems modern EVs depend on. Without that access, the qualification has limited practical value.
The long-term risk is a repair workforce that is certified on paper but structurally unable to service the vehicles arriving in its workshops at a time when the UK’s ability to meet its zero emission targets depends as much on keeping EVs on the road as it does on selling them.
A problem hiding in plain sight
Modern EVs are software-defined vehicles. Battery diagnostics, key programming and software updates are prerequisites, and in order for a technician’s training to translate into completed repairs, consistent and verified data access must exist alongside it.
Access to the relevant data needs to be secure. It requires knowing who is requesting access, verifying their credentials, confirming they are authorised to work on security-related vehicle systems, and giving manufacturers visibility into that process.
Identity is the foundation. Without a reliable way to verify who is making the request, manufacturers cannot grant access with confidence, and independent operators are left navigating fragmented, brand-specific access models.
For franchised dealerships working on behalf of manufacturers, this infrastructure is established. For independent garages, it has meant navigating a fragmented, manufacturer-by-manufacturer system where processes vary, and approvals are inconsistent.
The IMI has warned that EV skills are already concentrated in the franchised dealer sector and unevenly distributed geographically.
A technician may hold the right qualification and still be unable to complete a job because verified access is not available to them on the same terms. The playing field is uneven, not just on skills, but on the infrastructure those skills depend on.
This is where trusted access frameworks become important.
The SERMI scheme, now live in the UK, creates a single recognised route for credentialed professionals to access security-related vehicle information across manufacturers.
As the UK Trust Centre for SERMI, Digidentity’s role is to provide the infrastructure and architecture that is needed to issue the credentials that confirm their identity and stored and utilised through the Digidentity Wallet.
This gives manufacturers the visibility they need to open their systems to the independent sector with confidence. It replaces a fragmented process with a consistent one built on verified identity at every step.
The cost of getting access wrong
The volume of EVs requiring independent servicing is growing quickly. Almost half a million new battery electric vehicles were registered in the UK in 2025, according to SMMT, and used EV transactions rose 45.7% to a record 274,815 in the same year. That supply is now moving toward independent workshops at scale.
Main dealer capacity was never designed to absorb the full volume of EVs on UK roads. If independent garages cannot participate on equal terms, the result is predictable: longer waits for drivers, lost work for independents, and an EV repair ecosystem that consolidates around the dealer network by default.
The IMI has already warned of a postcode lottery developing as the second-hand EV market grows, where a driver’s ability to find a qualified technician depends on where they live rather than what the market should be able to provide.
A postcode lottery that extends to data access would compound that further, creating a situation where even workshops with qualified staff cannot complete certain repairs because consistent access to manufacturer systems remains out of reach. Together, that would directly undermine the distributed repair capacity on which the UK’s EV transition depends.
Sharing responsibility for training, access
The skills gap will not close overnight. But the access gap is one the industry can begin to address now, and doing so would immediately strengthen the return on every training investment already made.
As electric vehicles reshape the market, the ability to service and repair them at scale will define how well the industry adapts. Each job now involves diagnostics and security protocols that require both verified competence and verified access.
Trusted access frameworks provide that foundation. They ensure qualified technicians can complete the work they are trained for and give manufacturers the confidence to open their systems beyond the franchised network. They also give the industry a consistent way to connect training with authorisation, so that investment in skills can be fully realised in practice.
By bringing verification, access and accountability together, these frameworks help to turn individual qualifications into operational capability across the sector. That connection is what will ultimately determine whether the UK builds an EV repair infrastructure that works for the whole market, or one that remains concentrated where it has always been.
Author: Marcel Wendt, CTO and founder of Digidentity
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