Hybrid vehicles scare some technicians. No wonder. The lack of quality hybrid training classes nationwide and technician apathy have resulted in misconceptions and myths surrounding the technology, says Craig Van Batenburg, owner of Automotive Career Development Center (ACDC), a renowned training organization specializing in hybrids in Worcester, Mass.
In an interview with Network Magazine, Van Batenburg outlines the three biggest myths surrounding hybrid vehicles.
Myth No. 1: If you work on a hybrid and touch the wrong thing, you’ll get electrocuted and die.
“That’s probably the biggest myth,” says Van Batenburg, who operated his own repair shop for more than 26 years. “As long as you properly shut off the ignition switch…nothing in the car has any high voltage at all. It takes about five minutes—10 minutes on the larger models—for the voltage to drain out of the car’s capacitors.
“From a technician’s standpoint, I understand why hybrids can be downright scary. Hybrids are certainly more complicated—there are more computers, more sensors, more components. You’ve been working on high-amperage, low-voltage systems your whole life—like a starter motor, so you’ve got like 400 amps, 12 volts. And now it’s practically reversed with hybrids—1200 volts at 12 amps. All you need to learn now are the additional skills to go with your traditional automotive skills.”
Hybrid vehicles do, in fact, present safety challenges, Van Batenburg admits, but they can be easily overcome as long as you know what you’re doing. For instance, while the blue cables on hybrids carry 36 volts, the orange-sheathed ones carry enough voltage to be considered lethal.
“A simple rule to remember,” he says. “If it’s orange, don’t touch it.”
Myth No. 2: A hybrid vehicle starts by itself unexpectedly.
“This myth still makes the rounds because some techs aren’t aware of the Idle-Stop feature, which is a fuel-saving software that shuts off the internal combustion engine—or ICE—when you come to a stop. Basically, a service technician with no hybrid experience will go out and drive a hybrid into a service bay while a customer is waiting. The car goes into Idle-Stop, but the technician thinks the engine is now shut off. It’s really on standby. At which point, the technician starts working on the car—without ever shutting it off properly—and the car will ‘start up’ unexpectedly and scare the crap out of him. Truth is, the technician didn’t shut off the car in the first place.”
Myth No. 3: Hybrids are just too complicated to work on.
“I usually hear this from the technician who’s not up to date anyway with non-hybrids,” he says. “They don’t understand CAMs or multiplexing. They don’t know how to reflash a computer. Young technicians know to program their iPod and download music onto it, but they can’t reflash a computer. A technician who is really keeping up with his training is one who looks at his position as a career—not as just a job. A career is somebody who not only works 40 hours a week, but is also putting in 20 hours outside his job to prepare for work. A job is just somebody punching a time clock.”
Still, hybrids can be intimidating at first to be sure. But with 17 different hybrid models on the market today and more than 1.6 million hybrid vehicles in the world—including a million in the United States alone—hybrids can no longer be ignored by the independent service dealer.
According to J.D. Power and Associates, approximately 345,000 hybrid vehicles were on pace to be sold in 2007, up from 256,000 sold in 2006. J.D. Power attributes the increased sales to high gas prices, coupled with automakers lowering the price premium for most hybrid models. Lower prices for hybrids, as well as sales incentives, have made the vehicles a more economically viable choice for drivers wanting to save money on fuel.
J.D. Power expects hybrids to make up 4.6 percent of the total new-vehicle market by 2010, when there will be as many as 65 hybrid models for sale in the U.S. The sales leader remains the Toyota Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.
As hybrid vehicle registrations continue to increase, so does the opportunity for the aftermarket to service them, Van Batenburg says. He encourages the Network’s Parts Plus Car Care Centers and Automotive Service Professionals to overcome their fears and doubts when it comes to hybrids.
“There are enough hybrids on the road now to make a business case. Not only that, but hybrid owners are the kind of clientele your shop wants. Hybrid owners are from all walks of life. The average hybrid owner makes over $110,000 a year and has a college degree. If you’re a hybrid owner who makes that kind of money and your car needs work, you’re not gonna ask the shop if they take credit cards. You’re saying, ‘Here’s a check. When am I going to get my car back?’ And then that check clears.”
Boulevard Automotive, a Parts Plus Car Care Center in San Diego, has already started forming customer relationships with many owners of the Prius, which has a strong presence on the West Coast.
Although still under warranty for the electrical system, many first- and second-generation Priuses have been coming to Boulevard Automotive for regular maintenance, says owner Ed Abrahim.
“We’ve seen a lot of them for oil service, brake jobs and fluids,” he says. “The customer trusts us completely as far as being able to handle routine maintenance. It’s funny, but I think initially we were the ones who feared that we couldn’t service the vehicle—not the customer. We’re weren’t confident because of the safety issues.”
Those safety issues are easily overcome, Van Batenburg maintains. Technicians should not wear jewelry when working on hybrids. And the vehicles must be turned off—and kept off—before you service them. Above all, do not attempt any service work involving the high-voltage hybrid battery, inverter or electric motors without the proper training and equipment.
“There’s very little equipment that’s needed to be on the safe side,” he says. “We’re talking 500 bucks for a good meter that can handle high voltage—one that won’t blow up in your face—and a good set of rubber gloves.”
If you follow safety guidelines, you can efficiently perform the following areas of hybrid service in your shop right now:
• Belts, wipers and HVAC system
• Brakes
• Cooling system
• Conventional battery service and replacement
• Exhaust/emissions control systems
• Ignition service/tune-up
• Oil and filter changes
• Tire and wheel service
• Transmission service
• Suspension and steering
After learning more about the technology, Abrahim now considers hybrids to be a natural progression in the automotive-repair industry, much like OBD-1 and OBD-II. His eager technicians attended a class on hybrids last year through the California chapter of the Automotive Service Council. There, they learned how to safely work on hybrids, calming fears that they could be electrocuted working on the vehicles.
“Yeah, the electrical system is complex—but that car’s still got brakes…and it still needs oil changes. Yes, it has a battery pack, which is a different breed, but the car still has a gasoline engine. If we’re confident we can handle hybrids now, we’ll be in good shape with the customer down the road as we learn more.”
Although Troy Sika’s Lansing, Mich.-based shop is already safely performing many of these maintenance items on hybrids, he is committed to taking more technical classes to ensure Westside Car Care’s reputation as being able to work on just about anything.
“I have a big interest in hybrids,” he says. “I think it’s gonna be about four years before independents see a big amount of hybrids coming in, but I want to be the first shop in my area to be known as a hybrid repair shop. You have to constantly look down the road for the latest technology in cars. I’m already signed up for a class on the new Ford Focus fuel cell-platform they’re coming out with.
“I can only imagine the number many hybrids we’ll see in 10 years. If you don’t jump on the bandwagon now, it will pass you by. Gases prices have made these cars popular, and they’re here to stay.”
Despite the location of Sue Martin’s shop in conservative Willow Street, Pa., she is already encouraging her technicians to attend hybrid training classes.
“Yeah, you’d think that everyone around here pretty much drives a truck, but we’ve been seeing more and more hybrids,” says Sue, co-owner of Willow Street Tire and Auto Service and a longtime member of the Network Service Dealer Council.
“We initially got familiar with hybrids through the mandatory state inspections we perform,” she says. “Slowly, we realized that most of the stuff—brakes, tires, fluids—is the same. The inspection process only made us want to learn more about them, so my guys have been attending classes to become familiar with the more technical things.
“We’re confident by the time we start seeing hybrids coming off warranty that our shop will be known as the one in town where people can take them if they don’t want to go to the dealer.”
Eventually, prepared independent shops will reap the benefits of their hybrid expertise, Van Batenburg says.
“For example, replacing the battery packs on hybrids can be expensive, as much as $5,000 for a new one on the first-gen Prius. At ACDC, we can teach you how to essentially ‘rebuild’ the battery packs, so you can offer that service to hybrid drivers wanting a lower-priced alternative.”
