Building on its long-term commitment to mobility education, Washtenaw Community College has unveiled a new electric vehicle and battery laboratory.
Building on its long-term commitment to mobility education, Washtenaw Community College (WCC) has unveiled a new electric vehicle (EV) and battery laboratory. Equipped with vehicle lifts, charging stations, and electric battery workbenches, the space prepares students to perform essential maintenance and repairs on hybrid and electric vehicles. 
“It’s a really exciting time for us,” says Brandon Tucker, executive vice president for instruction at WCC. “We’ve expanded the offerings within our Advanced Transportation Center, which isn’t a building, but a combination of programs that support the mobility industry.”
Open since 2014, the Advanced Transportation Center serves more than 1,000 students enrolled in over 60 courses in automotive and cybersecurity technologies alone. Training offered through the center focuses on EVs, batteries, charging infrastructure and transportation technologies, semiconductor manufacturing, mechatronics and industrial electronics, cybersecurity and data analytics, and artificial intelligence and business intelligence. 
Tucker emphasizes that the training is hands-on and focused on real-world applications. At the EV lab, students can take cars apart. The battery lab beside it allows instructors to show students how to safely handle batteries.
‘We’ve heard that EVs are dangerous. Well, they’re not dangerous if you know how to operate them,” Tucker says. “We know that EVs have big batteries that are dangerous. We’re showing students how to remove those batteries and service vehicles in the safest way possible.”
He explains that WCC’s efforts are closely aligned with industry talent needs. While other colleges offer EV education, WCC is unique in offering a three-pronged approach that emphasizes servicing, programming, and manufacturing.
“100,000 lines of code are going through your car at any given time, so we teach students more than how to service the battery,” Tucker says. “We also look at the infotainment system, or some features that may go haywire. How do you reprogram or diagnose those?”
Tucker says local employers are already reaching out to WCC staff about how the lab can support their businesses. 
“They want us to train their technicians, because if someone has been in a technician job, they have maybe never dealt with EVs,” Tucker says. “So we’re making sure that both students that are looking to enter the field and current workers have access to the training they need.”
Jaishree Drepaul is a writer and editor based in Ann Arbor. She can be reached at jaishreeedit@gmail.com.
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