Fixed Ops Journal - December 2020 - F15

dealerships. Morgan says work on advanced
technology, hybrids and EVs in dealer service
departments is usually reserved for master
technicians, but students need opportunities,
too.
" I think they need to start having students
exposed in programs like ours to be prepared to service those vehicles four or five
years from now, " he says.

Starting in express? Wrong
After students graduate and go to work full
time, they often start on the express service
lane changing oil, rotating tires and performing light maintenance. That is a mistake, say Joe Myers, technician development
manager at Toyota, and Eric Kenar, manager
of technician environment and the Service
Technical College at GM.
Myers says Toyota has " been continually
working with our dealers to correct that, " but
when dealers need to replace express service techs, they put beginners in that role,
not master techs.
Kenar says GM encourages the mentoring
of new technicians by more experienced
ones to put them on a steady career path.
" If a dealership is going to leave a welltrained ASEP student on the lube rack, that
is a downfall of that organization, " he says,
referring to GM's Automotive Service Educational Program.
Mark Hankins, an auto tech professor at
Shoreline Community College in the Seattle
area, says the college is looking at what it can
cut in order to incorporate more hybrid and
EV training into its program. Shoreline has
manufacturer-specific training programs
with GM, Honda, Mopar, Toyota and Tesla,
and partners with Nissan and Subaru in its
general service technician program.
" At some point, we're going to have to look
at what to subtract, like tearing down engines and transmissions, " Hankins says.
" How much of that is really done in the industry anymore? "
As the type of work in dealerships changes,
so will aspiring technicians, who will have to
adapt to an industry that requires more analytical and diagnostic skills and less
wrench-turning.
" When you talk to a dealer, 10 years ago 70
percent of their warranty claims were engine or transmission related, and 30 percent
were electrical, " Hankins says. " Now, it's the
other way around. There's a [negative] attitude among the traditional automotive students about electric cars, so I think the culture will have to change.
" They're going to have to embrace electric
cars and hybrids because they're coming
whether they like them or not. " 

How some automakers are preparing
Here is what some automakers are doing
in their technician education programs to
address the switch to electrification.

Ford Motor Co.

In 2021, Ford will add web-based training
modules on components and operation of
battery-electric vehicles, plus an introduction
to servicing high-voltage batteries as optional
courses for students. Other high-voltage
training modules will be added. Half of Ford's
38 tech training schools have hybrid vehicles
in their shops, and all will soon get a C-Max
Energi plug-in hybrid.

General Motors

The automaker's technician training
program offers two courses on electrical and
electronic systems, and students who want
additional training can take web-based
courses available to dealership techs. GM
expects to add more content on electrified
vehicles as EVs become a bigger part of
service departments' business.
" Over time, more electrification information
will be part of our core curriculum, " says
Chris Wallace, technical training integration
manager. " Right now, with the volume and

mix that we have in the overall fleet of
vehicles, it is more appropriate to give the
core skill sets for working on a vehicle and
how to do basic diagnostics. That lays the
framework for teaching electrification. "

Tesla

A 12-week training course called START and
dedicated to EVs is available at eight colleges
that prepare advanced students to be
technicians at Tesla service centers.
Students who sign up commit to working for
Tesla for two years and to be willing to move.

Toyota

Toyota's Technician Training and Education
Network will launch a hybrid vehicle training
and certification course at five of its schools
in March. The 30 other T-TEN schools will
have it by mid-2022. Each school will receive
safety, testing and training materials and a
new Prius Prime. Joe Myers, technician
development manager, says Toyota needs
more techs trained to service the growing
number of hybrid vehicles coming into its
dealerships, and its regional training centers
had backlogs of techs seeking training.
- Rick Popely

'More complicated' than a brake job

iam Dunlap practically grew up with a
wrench in his hand.
He spent a lot of time helping his
dad, who often had 10 motorcycles
in the garage that he was repairing and tuning. That started him on a path of working on
cars as a teenager to earning an associate's
degree and a general automotive technician
certificate from Shoreline Community College in the Seattle area.
He now works in the service department
of Volvo Cars Seattle and spends as much
time with a laptop as he does with a wrench.
The laptop lets Dunlap access service and
parts information as well as download software updates for the vehicle. Dunlap does
basic maintenance and repairs, but he and
other techs use a diagnostic tool, known as
VIDA, loaded on the laptop to check every
vehicle that comes in.
" We plug in VIDA to see how it's been operating and if any trouble codes have been
triggered at any point or anything is outside
of parameters, " he says.
Volvo currently offers several hybrid models and will introduce its first battery-electric vehicle in 2021. Dunlap and technicians

like him are preparing for a future dominated by electrification.
Right after he was hired, he was sent to a
Volvo training center in Dallas for four
weeks of intensive instruction in electricity
and working on high-voltage systems.
" It's easy to teach [someone] how to
change brakes, " Dunlap says. " But to have
somebody understand how electricity
works, where there is a ground and what's
causing a ground to be there and how it relates to the entire system is more complicated. "
Dunlap says he enjoys working on older
cars but understands where the industry is
headed with electrification. He is comfortable with the technology and the safety risks
of high-voltage systems.
But he worries that EV customers won't
bring their cars in for service as often and it
won't be as lucrative for flat-rate techs.
" We have customers coming into the shop
now every 3,000 to 10,000 miles for an oil
change, " he says. " With EVs, they might only
come into the shop every 50,000 miles or
when there's something wrong. "
- Rick Popely

DECEMBER 2020

PAGE 15

Fixed Ops Journal - December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - December 2020