EV owners outside metro areas can't find a single certified high-voltage technician

Electric vehicle owners in rural and suburban areas face a near-total absence of repair options because EV repair requires high-voltage safety certification (ASE xEV certifications launched in 2023), and almost no independent shops outside major metro areas have invested in the training and equipment. So what? An EV owner in a town of 20,000 people whose vehicle develops a battery cooling issue or inverter fault must flatbed-tow the car 60-150 miles to the nearest authorized service center. So what? Flatbed towing costs $3-$5 per mile, so that's $180-$750 just to get the car to a shop, plus days or weeks without transportation while waiting for a repair appointment at an overloaded dealer. So what? This makes EV ownership practically non-viable outside urban corridors, constraining the EV transition to metro areas where charging and service infrastructure already exists. So what? Rural and suburban communities — which drive more miles annually and would benefit most from lower fuel costs — are locked out of EV adoption. This persists because the economics don't work for rural shops: investing $50,000+ in EV training, high-voltage PPE, and insulated tools for a customer base that might bring in 2-3 EV repairs per month is not financially justifiable.