Central New Mexico Community College ready to roll out new EV certification program

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –With a surge of electric vehicles expected on New Mexico roads soon there’s a new effort from one of the state’s biggest college’s to train the workforce needed to work on those cars. “They seem to be the future,” said CNM student Walter Morales. 

Electric vehicles are what student Morales calls the future and CNM agrees to launch a new program this fall looking to train the future EV workforce. “We have certificate programs that are training students to work on EV’s and working them up to be in the industry,” said Nicholas Aragon, CNM’s parking and fleet services director. 

The two-semester program will train people to become electric vehicle technicians who can repair, maintain, and build EVs which are far different than traditional gas-powered cars. 

“A lot of people don’t realize that when those cars are 25 years old, we are going to start having those breakdowns, the older and older the cars get, the more and more jobs are going to be created, the more and more people they will need for those jobs,” said Curtis Garand, CNM transportation program chair and instructor. 

EV technicians will need special service training to take care of higher voltage batteries, among other differences. CNM says its program will get students focusing on three types of vehicles including fully electric, hybrid, and plug-in cars. “They have to do all the electronics, all the electric motors, and it’s a real EV car that they have to drive and test on their own,” said Garand. 

As students learn those skills they’ll also work on rebuilding an electric vehicle from real-world models like a Ford F–150, Toyota Prius or Honda Civic among other cars. “It’s important to learn how to work around those vehicles and work around the hazards that come with those as well,” said Morales. 

CNM says their goal is for certified techs to be able to work for EV dealerships. Those jobs can have starting pay of anywhere between 50 to 60 thousand dollars a year. “It’s just a cool concept I very much enjoy working with it,” said Morales.  

Along with celebrating the new program CNM also celebrated two new EVs the school purchased for peer use.