The electric car boom is already transforming the auto industry : NPR

For Jaylin Jones, 28, an assembly line worker, the workweek is long and exhausting.

Eleven hours a day, sometimes six days a week, Jones and hundreds of other workers race to assemble Ford’s sleek new pickup truck known as the Lightning.

“It’s always busy here,” says Jones, who has worked on gas-powered F-150s for years. “The demand is high, so we had to put them out.”

So many customers have placed their first orders for the Lightning that Ford reached capacity and suspended bookings for some time. Many of the workers are being retrained and moved to the electrical plant, where Ford is now doubling its size.

What was a niche option in the automotive market just a few years ago has quickly become the choice of many buyers. Auto companies are shifting resources to expand their electric fleets. The process is one that has had a profound impact on engineers who have dedicated their careers from blue-collar workers to developing gas engines and transmissions.

Chris Scaggs, who is in charge of expanding operations at Ford’s power plant, said, “I worry about how we can get enough people here and fully train them.” Some pick it up a little slower.”

Building an electric car means fewer parts, more automation, and a different kind of engineer.

New electric vehicle registrations in the United States have increased more than 250% in the past five years, according to credit bureau Experian. According to the International Energy Agency, China’s electric vehicle sales nearly tripled to 3.3 million last year, accounting for about half of the global total. Some states, such as California and New York, have announced plans to phase out gasoline vehicles by 2035.

These vehicles have fewer parts and ultimately require fewer workers. On top of that, the automotive industry has been automating for years.

They are also essentially computers on wheels. Retraining automotive engineers who have spent years developing expertise in gas engines and conventional transmissions to tackle these new types of vehicles will be a major challenge that auto companies cannot tackle. .

Craig DeWald, Ford’s Chief Learning Officer, said: “We’re going out strategically and bringing in key talent.”

Electric cars require millions more lines of code than gas-powered cars, and analysts agree that few people are as competent to tackle them as software engineers. The problem is that the numbers are so low that the shortage is expected to reach almost 1.2 million by 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“There will be layoffs because different types of workers are needed,” said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Cox Automotive. “Software engineers are very important in EV.”

Trying to find talent in college, looking far

Universities, once a reliable pipeline of talent for the U.S. auto industry, must also change.

“Some of the larger universities realize they’re lagging behind,” says Ford’s DeWald. “They need to catch up and do their own learning to really respond to the way the world is changing and stay relevant.”

At the University of Michigan’s automotive engineering department, not a single student enrolled in an automatic transmission course last year. A few years ago, this class would normally have had around 80 students.

The university offers courses centered on electrification and battery-powered systems, but has trouble finding instructors for some of the required courses.

Arthur Hyde, Director of the Automotive Engineering Program at the University of Michigan, said:

Universities and businesses alike are coping with this nasty growth by looking for talent a little further afield. Hyde’s classes are increasingly filled with students from China and India, and U.S. automakers are tapping into this talent pool.

“Most companies I know have engineering centers in India that do nothing but write software,” says Hyde, a former Ford engineer. “It’s like an assembly line.”

“Transformation is difficult”

Gasoline vehicles are still the main source of revenue for the automotive industry. The surge in demand for Ford’s new electric Lightning hasn’t affected sales of his classic F-150.

Companies will hire software engineers and, like Ford laid off 3,000 white-collar workers last month, gradually lay off others who have worked in gas-powered vehicles for years.

“Transformation is messy and ambiguous. As part of this transformation, we need to look at everything we are doing across all functions,” said Jennifer Waldo, Chief People and Employee Experience Officer. “Look at Kodak. They had a lot of products in the beginning and they missed it. We learned a lot from those lessons.”

Then the race started. It’s not just about getting to the electric future, but finding the right mind to get there.