The freedom to service new vehicles was joined by another example of the sector’s current need to evolve quickly at the NTDA Tyre Industry Conference 2022. Dave Walker, business development director, Autotech discussed the topic of training technicians to carry out services on electric and hybrid vehicles. Noting the speed of the new car market’s move away from diesel (only around 5.5 per cent of new cars sold this year are diesel), and the growth of various flavours of electric car, Walker said that “only 15 per cent of UK technicians (around 32,900) are now qualified to work safely” on these vehicles. It is estimated that 90,000 technicians will be required by 2030 to work on EV/hybrid cars.