SPOTLIGHT
Those used to carrying out their own fleet vehicle maintenance (or outsourcing to independent garage/service centres) are going to get a bit of a shock if and when their fleet converts to EVS or even hybrids.
At this point, the vehicles will have to be serviced at dealerships long after their scheduled servicing programmes expire, and as our sister publication Motor Equipment News discovered, there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Last year at an Audi Drive day at Hampton Downs, Audi GM Dean Sheed was talking about the brand’s journey to install 50kw or better EV chargers at all their dealerships as it looks to expand the portfolio of EV and PHEV models.
Audi has a comprehensive program to ensure dealerships have the trained staff, specialised tooling, safety equipment and charging equipment to allow them to service and support Audi EV’S.
Audi dealerships have three levels of technician – Service Technician, Diagnostic Technician and Master Technician. With the increasing number of EV models, they now also have High Voltage Technicians (HVT’S) – initially these were Master Technicians, but HVT training is spreading with just over half the technicians qualified as HVT’S with a target of over 80 percent in the near term.
Only an HVT can work on a vehicles
HVT system and a non HVT technician can only work on other parts of a vehicle if the HVT has first isolated the High Voltage system (to allow them to do say, brake pad changes).
The HVT training not only encompasses repairs to the system, it also provides a knowledge base on the technical side of EV servicing and the health and safety hazards relating to High Voltage systems (specified as over 400 volts). HVT’S can do any repairs up to removing the battery pack from the vehicle (they are removed downwards by the way).
There is a higher qualification of High Voltage Expert, who can work on the batteries which are modular ( Typically 36 modules or cells). These experts can remove and replace these modules, currently there are two HV Experts in
New Zealand, so they need to go to the dealership to do the battery repair and then the HVT can replace the battery in the car.
In terms of chargers, each dealership must have at least a 50kw DC charger (these are the size of the common fast public chargers).
In many cases, dealerships will have one external unit and one in the workshop. Some of the larger dealers (Auckland and Christchurch) have also installed 175kw chargers.
Giltrap Audi is in the process of putting their external 50kw and 175kw chargers on the Chargenet system so they are publicly available.
In addition, the EV bays and delivery bay need at least 7.2kw AC chargers (Each new Audi comes with a 7.2kw charger). This is a considerable investment, as the dealership needs to be scoped for location of the charger and potential wiring and power supply upgrades.
Audi is using Singer Electrical and ABB chargers for these installations.