that will be in high demand very soon.

(gentle music) - Now, first of all, we have a reservoir over here with the green fluid.

Does everybody remember what we talked about the green fluid?

- [Ray] Now it's time to really create a new workforce in terms of electrification.

- Even though it is an EV car, it still has to have the coolant to operate your heated motor inside.

- And we wanna be part of everything, the whole future of mobility.

But we wanna make it applicable and accessible to the community.

- [Will] Detroit's East Side on Jefferson, the Islandview neighborhood, an electric vehicle repair class.

Pierre Pickens checking out a Volvo Polestar.

- You know what I'm saying?

Like a whole bunch of motor missing, look like a whole bunch of power missing to me.

- I see 'em driving, but I've never got under the hood of an electric vehicle.

- They're coming whether I like it or not.

So I might as well know something about 'em.

- I love Hellcats, SRTs, Trackhawks of that nature, but I'm also fascinated with electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.

- This is a great opportunity here to get involved, especially in the city of Detroit.

- And "World News Report" says that we're 38% behind in EV technical training.

10 years from now, we're gonna be nearly 50 to 55% behind.

If we don't get more trained technicians in the EV world, we are gonna be so far behind we're not gonna be able to fix our own cars.

This is a fully-electric air conditioning system.

- So this is the air conditioner right here?

- That is the air conditioning system there.

These gentlemen want to achieve something in a higher pay grade, and achieve something that a lot of other people are too scared to even try.

EV can be very dangerous if you let it be.

It doesn't have to be.

The right safety protocols, which we study every course, is number one importance.

If you study and you practice EV safety, you don't have anything to worry about.

- [Will] The 12-week class, a Detroit nonprofit puts it on, the first exposure as to how these cars work and a chance to find a new career.

- As a hobby, I do a lot of car audio electronics, like big speakers, and subwoofers, and things like that.

And part of that community is switching over the regular, gas-powered cars to new lithium batteries.

When this class was brought up to me, I immediately jumped on it because I thought that as a hobby it would be kind of cool to do as a profession in the future.

- Now electric tools, you'll be able to tell 'em, because they have a special coating over 'em.

Some of them even have the metal tips, but still the coating is insulated over the housing.

- [Will] Some of these students are in recovery, some returning citizens.

- It came about, me being in a program, to help me get back on the right track in my life and everything.

And this opportunity came about, and I felt like it was a great career to get into.

- These individuals are really trying to change their lives.

So we wanna give these individuals some alternatives.

'Cause the EV space, the infrastructure space, you talking about this is the big boy game.

- [Will] A big boy, big game, these EVs are, at least those who own them.

Surveys say that the vast majority of buyers are middle-aged white men making more than $100,000 a year.

Here's a chance to take apart a Tesla, Polestar, and Chevy Volt Hybrid, a big deal for this class.

- Some of the dealerships have their own training sessions, but they're on-hands training while they're getting paid.

These gentlemen are here volunteering their own time to learn this and understand it so that they can be better in the long run and getting a better job.

- We have some relationships with some of the dealerships, and the dealerships are always looking for entry-level technicians.

Now they're not the one at the dealership working on EVs, but they will be able to work themselves up.

Also, they will be able to get into an apprenticeship program where they'll get paid to learn.

- [Will] Not just under the hood, there's book learning and instruction on the EV infrastructure, stuff like charging stations and how to safely plug in a car.

- A Level 2 plug-in for your house, plug in to your wall right here.

And you also plug this part into your car.

- This is the, what we call, the testing ground.

If they can't get through this here, they're not prepared to go any further.

- That's what the three wires are, it's three-phase AC.

So there's three phases that go into this, which makes the high voltage, that is the orange wires.

They are the high voltage wires.

- There's a lot of testing that has to go into it.

- [Will] Instructor William Widner also offers advice about problem solving and customer service.

- Guesswork does not resolve a problem every time.

And if you do guesswork all the time, sooner or later people are gonna get a bad taste in their mouth, they're not gonna come to you, they're not gonna want their vehicle fixed by you.

- With the direction that this is going, this is gonna open a lot of doors.

Even if it's not working on the vehicles, working on the charging stations for the vehicles.

I mean, so this right now, I mean this is the ground floor.

- With this knowledge, when I do graduate from here, I will be transferring to a dealership.

And from a dealership, I'm just going to go to apprenticeship program, two-year program and just keep working until I have my own EV shop.

- [Will] Ray Smith got interested in EVs when he operated a shuttle service for Detroit seniors and those with special needs.

He was running a self-driving electric vehicle and wondered, "Will there be Detroiters able to repair them?"

There are some EV repair classes at community colleges in the suburbs, but there's still tuition.

This class is free.

- You can walk here.

You know, you don't have to catch four buses, you know, and then the buses stop running, then you stuck somewhere in the suburbs.

No, you come here where you got access.

And also we have a ride-sharing program.

I mean we offer rides, and we gonna have a fleet of EVs just for ride sharing here as well.

- I'm a combustion vehicle type of guy.

I still am, so I kind of just stumbled across the course and I decided to look into it further.

I've been doing my own research on EVs just to know something about 'em, see if it's something I would consider, and I'm starting to get a lot curious with 'em.

Like, just seeing it is actually is an experience in itself.

- [Will] Charles White, Detroiter, longtime car guy, works as a cleaning contractor.

- The more I come to the class, the more interested I become in these EVs.

Again, I'm a diehard combustion vehicle guy.

So you really taking me out of my element, but my curiosity is what got the cat clinging to the tree?

- [Will] Perhaps White's getting ready to jump in.

- [Charles] This is it, yeah, it's where it's going.

You know, the way the world is changing so rapidly, we may not have time to sit back and say, "Oh, you know, I got five or six years before I can tap into it."

Five or six years, it may be less than 30% of gas vehicles on the road.

We don't know.

- We are here in Detroit, we the Motor City still.

But now we going to the EV and we gotta be the EV City now.

And I know that GM, and Ford, and Bill Ford, them guys, and Mary Barra, they really pushing.

I mean they serious about this.

But we wanna be serious with them.

- It's like a jigsaw puzzle, isn't it?

It will only go one way.

- But this is a wake up to the future of this country, because it's moving fast.

But we have to make sure that all individuals are included.

- Ironically, I stepped away from working on cars because I got tired of oily hands and knuckles, and the messy process when it comes to the big, extraneous jobs, which is eliminated in working on EVs.

So that's another thing that kinda like got my attention, I won't get as dirty.

(laughs) - [Will] Even though White's a cleaning contractor.

- Exactly, I mean I like clean, so it kind of goes hand in hand.