• In La Villette, on Tuesday morning, the National Association for the Development of Electric Mobility (Avere) invited six actors with very different profiles to tell, through their careers, the new professions of electric mobility to an audience of high school students.
  • They are project managers, engineers, business creators, training directors... Among them, few get their hands dirty. Because these new professions are more to be found in the infrastructures that the rise of the electric vehicle implies to develop.
  • How much job creation can be expected? If the estimates are in progress, we slip to the Avere, the needs will certainly be significant and the sector is already, like others, facing difficulties to encounter. Hence the imperative to make them discover... and as soon as possible.

"How much do you earn?" It did not take long for an intrepid to put his feet in the dish, among the hundred high school students from the Paris region to have taken place in the auditorium of the Cité des Métiers, in La Vilette, this Tuesday morning.

A little embarrassed, Arilas Djadel, project manager at Enedis, the main operator of the public electricity distribution network in France, finally got started. "After all, if it can motivate you"... "For an Enedis employee at bac + 2 level like me, we are between 1,800 and 2,100 euros net per month, not counting seniority," he evaluates. "It vaaaaa

"In other words, there is work"

Arilas Djadel, 28, is the first to take the stage, this Tuesday morning, invited by the National Association for the Development of Electric Mobility (Avere), to present, through his career, the new professions of the electric vehicle. So Arilas Djadel unfolds, from his professional baccalaureate and BTS Electrotechnics to his entry into Enedis, where he is now in charge of transporting electricity to the charging stations on the parking lots of condominiums. "In France, there are 7 million to connect," he estimates. In other words, there is work. »

The six people who will succeed him on stage will say nothing else. From Olivier Toggenburger, co-founder of Park'n'Plug, specialized in the installation of charging stations, to Yann Lelong, president of Green Vision, which gives a second life to electric car batteries, to Alexandre Gallou, alternating engineer at Deffeuille Automobile, where he is working on the organization and optimization of repair workshops that will accommodate more and more electric vehicles.



New jobs not so much related to mechanics...

In the end, among them, few are led to put their hands in the sludge and their nose under the hood. From there to say that the electric vehicle will be able to do without mechanics? Not really to listen to Anaud Sautier, director of "network" training at Renault Group. "We have 2,000 vacancies in our workshops," he begins. And there is a strong challenge, that of ensuring the development of mechanics' skills so that they are able to intervene on both electric and thermal vehicles. There are still 40 million in France, and they are not going away right away. »

But it is not so much on the "mechanical" side that electromobility is set to shake up the automotive sector. The Avere even presents electric motors "as less technical than their thermal equivalents". And makes it an asset, "because cheaper to maintain". The real novelty of the electric car "is that it causes with its environment," says Antoine Herteman, president of Avere. Clearly: for it to work, you have to develop a whole new infrastructure around it.

Second life for batteries, smart charging...

A first challenge is to mesh the territory with a sufficient network of charging stations. The France is behind its targets, with just over 80,000 charging stations open to the public in January, when the government was aiming for 100,000... by the end of 2021. But that's not the only challenge. Yann Lelong also talks about finding new outlets for the first generation of batteries that are gradually reaching the end of their life in their vehicles. "This does not prevent them from being able to provide many services still, if only to store energy," he says. In particular, that produced by so-called "intermittent" sources (solar, wind, etc.). A key issue in the energy transition* on which Green Univers specializes.

Alexis de Jaurias, "Smart Charging" project manager at EDF, is working on yet another: "V2G", or how to make the electric car our energy reservoirs of tomorrow. "The idea is to allow, from specific terminals, not only to charge an electric car, but also to do the opposite, by returning to the grid the electricity stored in the battery when it may be interesting to do so," he explains.

It is therefore in everything that is developing around the electric vehicle that the new professions of electromobilté are nestled above all. How much job creation can we expect? "Evaluations are ongoing," says Antoine Herteman. But it is to be expected that 40% of the French car fleet will be electric in 2035. This already gives an idea of the future hiring needs of the sector. »

Anticipating the needs of arms and brains

The challenge is then to anticipate them to best support this rise in power. Olivier Toggenburger says he is already struggling to recruit the technical profiles that Park'n'Plug often needs. "However, we receive a lot of CVs, but few candidates have followed the training specific to our professions," he observes. This is what makes these mornings so relevant. We are used to working with post-baccalaureate students, but it is also important to be able to talk to high school and college students, if only so that they become familiar with these issues, know the training that could lead them to our professions. »

They are 650 to have followed the conference this Tuesday, a small part in the auditorium, the major online and since everywhere in France. The conference was part of the Advenir Formation program of Avere and through which the association has already met 20,000 high school and college students since 2021. And it works? To survey the students at the exit of the auditorium of the Cité des Métiers, there was reason to doubt it. There was Aboubacar, 20, in the final year pro Melec at Blanc-Mesnil, who displayed an enthusiastic smile. "I'm going to send my CV to Enedis," he said. Right next door and in the same class, Mohamed, 18, did not deviate from his idea of setting up his own business as an electrician. And then there is Ahmed and Elyes, 15 and 16 years old, in second pro MTNE of a Parisian high school and no more advanced on what they want to do later in the morning. Finally if, both let go, goguenards, that they just want to "make money". "But 1,800 euros is already good," concedes Elyes.

*The whole problem today is that electricity is difficult to store and that we must constantly find a balance between our consumption and our electricity production. However, depending on wind or sunshine conditions, solar or wind can produce more than the needs at the moment T. Hence the challenge of managing to store this surplus.

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  • Electric car
  • Employment
  • Formation
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  • Trades
  • Energy transition
  • High school