GM and OnStar Provide Electric Vehicle (EV) First Responder Training

August 11, 2022, Morning Training Session in Kalamazoo, Michigan

The number of electric vehicles on roads in North America grows by the day and will continue to increase with GM’s plans to have the capacity to build more than 1 million EVs by 2025. GM continues to ramp up investments in the ecosystem that will enable mass adoption and support those who play a vital role in the responsible deployment of electrified technology. Most recently, GM and OnStar announced the latest EV First Responder Training, which is a continuation of educational efforts that began more than a decade ago with the introduction of the Chevrolet Volt. The training is geared for First Responders (police, firefighters, EMS personnel, etc.) and second responders (tow-truck drivers, salvage yard workers or others who interact with an EV after an initial incident).

“Our primary goal is to provide key information directly to first and second responders,” says Joe McLaine, GM Global Product Safety and Systems Engineer, and leader of the training effort. “This training offers unique material and hands-on experiences that can help increase responders’ awareness of procedures to help maintain safety while interacting with EVs during the performance of their duties.”

The classes, which began in late June in Michigan, are being rolled out across the country over the coming year. Interest in the training has been swift, according to Mitch Petterson, Emergency Services Outreach Leader at GM.

“It’s been fantastic,” Petterson says. As a former fire chief, Petterson knew there would be an appetite for this kind of education. By mid-June, more than 200 spots in the Southeast Michigan sessions were filled. “My expectation is we’ll see that kind of response everywhere we go,” he says.

About the Training

The courses cover how responders should proceed when encountering an incident involving an EV, and protocols for emergency personnel if they must cut into a vehicle to extricate someone. The training shows the location of an EV’s battery and the exact point where to cut its high-voltage cable, as well as how to shut down the 12-volt system in a vehicle – similar to what would be done to an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle to prevent inadvertent deployment of its airbags, for example.

Petterson says there will be a number of physical EV assets on hand, such as parts of the propulsion and battery systems. “We describe in detail how responders can safely interact with electrified vehicles from the time they first get the call until the time that vehicle is towed and stored in a salvage yard,” Petterson says. “So, everything in between, we’re going to cover.”

GM and OnStar are also dedicated to teaching first and second responders how to approach an emergency scene with as much information as possible, including the valuable crash-related data available from OnStar’s Automatic Crash Response* and whether an incident involves an EV. The important information OnStar provides allows public safety officials to triage the situation appropriately and provide First Responders with what they need to respond safely and effectively on-scene.

First and second responders can visit www.gmEVFirstResponderTraining.com to learn more about this hands-on training opportunity.

*Requires an OnStar plan, working electrical system, cell reception and GPS signal. OnStar links to emergency services. Not all vehicles may transmit all crash data.