***Powering Rural Futures: *Clean energy is creating new jobs in rural America, generating opportunities for people who install solar panels, build wind turbines, weatherize homes and more. This seven-part series from the Rural News Network explores how industry, state governments and education systems are training this growing workforce.

---

From young ages, Joel Duncan and Haidyn Emerson were interested in how things work.

Duncan started small, familiarizing himself with the engines that power snowblowers, lawnmowers and four-wheelers. Working on a Shelby Cobra sports car kit at age 12 got him into bigger engines.

“That really cemented it as a cool thing to do,” he said of working on cars.

As a toddler, Emerson said, he liked taking things apart and putting them back together. “Ever since I was 3, I would take the door hinges off,” he said. “I’d take cardboard boxes and skateboards and make a wagon.”

Naturally, the two young men plan to work with their hands for a living. They’re enrolled in a college automotive services technology program to that end.

Joel Duncan works on an automatic transmission during a second-year automotive education class at Minnesota State University’s Moorhead campus on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Moorhead, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America

Unlike most of their predecessors, these aspiring repair technicians will enter the field with experience working on both electric and gas-powered vehicles.

The college, Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Moorhead, Minnesota, will embed electric vehicle courses into its curriculum starting this coming spring, a reflection of what an evolving automotive industry demands from its workforce.

M State Moorhead, as the college is known, developed the course after securing a grant from the National Science Foundation in 2022. Instructors have since been trained on the technology, readied two units for the 2026 semester debut and acquired vehicles and charging stations — one of which is available to the public outside the shop.

Related: Improvements to electric vehicles ease concerns about range loss in cold climates

Other schools within the Minnesota State system — the larger of the state’s two higher education institutions (the other being the University of Minnesota), with seven universities and 26 state colleges — are offering similar units, leading the charge on EV technical education in Greater Minnesota.

The work is happening while the federal government’s support for renewable energy initiatives has gone from the fast lane to an off ramp. Compared with President Joe Biden’s embrace of clean energy investments, President Donald Trump has taken a more adversarial stance, saying that the elimination of EV incentives promotes “true consumer choice.”

Despite this political gear shift, M State’s funding is unaffected for now. Cindy Bailey, the grant coordinator for the college, said the prevailing trends show the automotive industry needs workers ready to work on electric vehicles.

“The fact of the matter is, whatever the political climate and landscape, people own electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles,” she said. “We owe it to our students to provide the most well-rounded training to make them competitive in the labor market.”

An industry jolt

Below a Dodge Durango SUV, a GMC Sierra pickup truck and other gas-powered vehicles elevated on lifts — so students like Duncan and Emerson can work on them — the college’s training space has newer, permanent additions, including a Chevy Bolt electric vehicle. Next spring, students will learn the ins and outs of electric vehicle safety and maintenance on the Bolt, bought with grant funding.

An electric vehicle is parked in the automotive education workshop at Minnesota State University’s Moorhead campus on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Moorhead, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America

Clay County, where the campus is located, had a modest 244 electric vehicles on the roads as of July, according to data compiled by Atlas Public Policy. It’s likely that many more EVs are zipping around the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area.

Minnesotans own about 79,000 EVs. That accounts for only 1% of all vehicles, but state and national sales trends indicate acceleration. EV sales rose each year between 2015 and 2023, according to a Minnesota Department of Commerce report.

EV buy-in is most noticeable in the Twin Cities metro area, although four counties in Greater Minnesota have more than 1,000 in use. Olmsted County has the most in Greater Minnesota, with 2,200, followed by Wright, St. Louis and Stearns counties.

Minnesota is targeting a goal of 20% of registered vehicles being EVs by 2030, but a few speed bumps could keep the state from getting there. This year, the Trump administration ended tax credits for EV purchases and halted funding to build out a charging station network — two renewable energy initiatives approved during Biden’s term.

All this aside, EVs are undoubtedly becoming more common. More than 6% of all vehicle sales in Minnesota were EVs by 2023.

Having more EVs on the road without enough repair technicians to service them, however, wouldn’t do any good.

A student learns from a manual during a second-year automotive education class at Minnesota State University’s Moorhead campus on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Moorhead, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America

When a gas-powered vehicle goes kaput, owners have options. A dealership, an automotive center or maybe even a one-person shop could provide the right mix of affordability and trust when the inevitable breakdown occurs.

EV owners have options as well, but they are more scarce, particularly in rural areas, mostly limited to dealerships or specialized shops.

David Schulz, automotive instructor at M State, sees this changing in time.

“When something new comes out, the dealers are going to work on it first,” he said. “Then once it gets to a warranty, as soon as enough demand gets there you start seeing shops for it.”

Those shops will need technicians. A 36% increase in automotive service technicians and mechanics will be required to meet industry needs by 2030, according to projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Adapting to change

This is where Minnesota colleges fit into the equation, rolling out courses to familiarize the next generation of workers with electric vehicles.

Within Minnesota State’s system, Anoka Technical College started an automotive electronic diagnostic specialists program. Ridgewater College in Willmar folded EV maintenance into its programming. Minnesota State College Southeast in Winona introduces students to hybrid and electric vehicles using two vehicles and a charging station, a similar setup to what M State Moorhead will do.

Schulz grew up on a farm learning how to fix equipment before pursuing a career in automotive services. Fellow instructor Michael Rud, like Duncan, got into cars by working on a Shelby Cobra kit.

Instructor David Schulz checks on a student’s work during a second-year automotive education class at Minnesota State University’s Moorhead campus on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Moorhead, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local / Report for America

As educators, they’ve enjoyed learning about EVs in order to pass on lessons to students. Trade schools are teaching the electricians, plumbers and other workers of tomorrow, but Rud thinks few are changing as rapidly as automotive services.

“Diesel changes, too, but auto changes the most,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting. You’re constantly learning, and every day is different.”

What M State Moorhead staff learns while developing the courses may be shared with another institution in its system, Riverland College in Albert Lea. Riverland previously collaborated with M State Moorhead on autonomous vehicle technician coursework, also funded by a National Science Foundation grant.

Olle Gladso contributed to the curriculum’s development in Albert Lea before retiring last spring. He’s taken to electric vehicle technology, using a Ford Mustang Mach-E in his daily life.

EV growth, and an industry surrounding it, is inevitable, he said.

“Electric vehicles will continue to gain market share,” he said. “They’re simpler, they’re cheaper to maintain and they’re more reliable.”

Understanding how they work isn’t so simple. Technicians need to think differently about how to service EVs compared with gas-powered vehicles, Gladso said.

He gave the example of a window not rolling down. In an older vehicle, a mechanic needs to understand the mechanical components enabling a window to operate as intended in order to diagnose and fix it.

Students Zaid Yaseen, left, and Younis Ali work on a transmission during a second-year automotive education class at Minnesota State University’s Moorhead campus on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Moorhead, Minn. Credit: Ellen Schmidt/MinnPost/CatchLight Local/Report for America

EV issues are more abstract, Gladso said. Mechanics may need to understand electrical systems to diagnose an issue. “For a technician to be successful today, they have to have a solid, and I mean very solid, understanding of electric concepts,” he said.

M State Moorhead’s two new units in spring 2026 will cover electric platforms and electric/hybrid technology. With electricity, safety is absolutely essential, Rud said.

“If they’re overconfident or not confident enough, both of those can cause problems,” he said.

Gladso used to show his students a picture of a house’s foundation to illustrate what’s most important in a unit. Learning to be safe around electric systems will be the foundation for the rest of the coursework, he said, as the voltage involved is dangerously high.

Related: Grand Rapids autonomous transit expanding to nearby cities, tribal stops

“When it’s an 800-volt circuit, you don’t have to touch it for it to kill,” he said. “Just get close enough and it’ll electrocute you.”

Talking after a class in October, Duncan and Emerson said they’re eager to learn. Both students are aware of the trends in their chosen field.

“That just seems where the trajectory is heading,” Duncan said of electric vehicles.

Outside of class, they’re working at dealerships. As is the industry norm, electric vehicles are sold there, so any hours put into electric vehicles on campus will come in handy after graduation. Someday, they said, they could see themselves opening their own shops.

Duncan said being able to fix electric vehicles would only give him a leg up in a competitive market. “I don’t want to set limitations for myself because I don’t have the knowledge to do something,” Duncan said.

Certain blue-collar jobs will always need workers, Gladso said. The rise of EVs has him feeling optimistic that automotive services will remain one of them.

“You’re always going to need somebody to fix your car,” he said.

This reporting is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network* and MinnPost, South Dakota News Watch, Cardinal News, The Mendocino Voice and The Maine Monitor. Support from Ascendium Education Group made the project possible.*