April 2021

52 AFTERMARKET APRIL 2021 EV AND HYBRID VEHICLE TRAINING www.aftermarketonline.net VMs and parts suppliers eye 2030 deadline As the March issue of Aftermarket went to press last month, there was a surge of news on the move towards electric vehicles. First, JLR announced Jaguar is to become an all-EV brand by 2025, with six pure electric variants are pencilled in for Land Rover by 2030 as well. To achieve its aims, the company also announced an annual £2.5bn investment in vehicle technology. Next, Ford said it would go all-in on EVs by mid-2026. At that point, the carmaker said 100% of its passenger vehicle range in Europe will be zero-emissions capable, all- electric or plug-in hybrid, moving to all-electric by 2030. Investment will be key here as well, with the move spearheaded by a $1 billion investment in a new EV manufacturing base in Cologne. Then a few days later, on the components side, Schaeffler started mass production of a wide range of electric motors, ranging from single components through to complete drive systems. The news follows a move by the company in 2018 to set-up a dedicated E-Mobility division. All this news broke in the space of a few days, and the near overload on the topic making the question of shifting to being an EV-capable garage a question of when, not if for many businesses. EV AND HYBRID VEHICLE TRAINING The first in a new dedicated monthly focus on EV and hybrid training Working on EVs – Key considerations from DENSO According to Fatiha Laauich, Pan European Strategic Marketing Manager at DENSO, there are five key considerations for independent garages looking to seize the electric vehicle servicing opportunity: “At number five is understanding maintenance routines. While all vehicles have slightly different maintenance routines as recommended by the manufacturer, electrical systems should require minimal scheduled maintenance. EVs have fewer serviceable parts. While naturally-aspirated engines and EVs do share braking systems, these are regenerative in electric vehicles, and therefore typically last longer than those on conventional vehicles. However, electric vehicles will have similar maintenance requirements for lights, cabin filtration, suspension systems, tyres and wipers. Plug-in hybrids differ slightly because they will share a petrol engine, which will have the same servicing requirements as usual. “At number four is understanding different electrical systems. Take plug-in electric vehicles as an example. Early models typically used a slow recharge system. However, more recent models instead adopt fast or rapid recharge systems, which means there are several variations of