Live Webinars
Join Craig Van Batenburg for live online training! He will share some of the most up-to-date information about hybrid and electric vehicle technologies, and you can have your questions answered in real time. To find out when these webinars will be held, check out our Training Calendar.
EV-101
EV-101 is a 9-part webinar series that will bring you up to speed on the latest technological advancements over the last 5 years in the world of electric drive. For the last year, we’ve offered classes to medium and heavy duty truck and bus technicians, which will be included in some of these 1-hour live webinars. Once this series is over, we will then offer the latest OEM classes from the major manufacturers. This series will be a prerequisite to advance your knowledge in 2026. To get the most out of this series, we require that you purchase our latest book, Electrified Motor Vehicle Technology, so you can follow along and deepen your understanding.
Price: $149 per class, or $999 for the full series.
Customers who register for the full webinar series can purchase Craig’s book, Electrified Motor Vehicle Technology, for only $280! (Retail price is $350)
Can’t make it to every class? No problem! We will share a recording of the webinar with all registered students.
We will not bore you with “do not touch the orange cables” because everyone has had enough of that! What we will do is explain every component that is used in an EV that is not used in a gas car. For those of you that have limited knowledge in this newer technology please spend the money and buy our EMV book before you start this course. The hour or more that you will spend with me weekly will be more beneficial if you are reading the chapters in our book before the class starts. We will cover high voltage safety, but not by telling you what not to do, we will explain to you where the high voltage starts and where it ends so you can prevent electrocution by being aware of the risk.
Most EV owners believe there is no preventive maintenance to keep their electric car running safely and without trouble forever. Boy are they wrong, as we will explain necessary inspections, how to sell this to your customers based on experience ACDC has by doing tech support for shops around the world since electric cars started to sell in reasonable numbers in 2011. Every class allows you to open up your microphone, call us live on our cellphone, or send us a message in chat while the class is in session. No waiting until the end when your question was relevant 45 minutes earlier.
We will start by looking at diagrams of various EV platforms, where they mount the battery pack and the flow of high voltage to every component. We will then give a brief overview of all the components that use high voltage or are unique to electric cars that you would not have experienced on a gas car.
Did you know that the new Nissan Leaf has a completely different electric motor than anything we’ve seen before? Now we have three types of rotors and that stater has generally remained the same. Advancements in testing equipment has made the job easier for a technician to test and confirm the integrity of a drive motor. ACDC has researched inverters for decades. Craig enjoys explaining how they work in simple terms. If you have ever wondered about the transmissions used on most electric vehicles, the technology could not be simpler.
About three years ago Tesla allowed the aftermarket to purchase a subscription to service information in the scan tool. This opened up a world that ACDC has been investigating since then. The battery pack from cell level to a module was very different from other OEMs. This one-hour class will most likely go on past one hour because the major changes happening today is at the cell level. We will also discuss rebuilding and equipment needed to keep your customers happy. Most likely, there will be follow up webinars to add more depth to the latest battery developments as they happen in real time.
Did you know when you step on the brakes the hydraulic fluid never makes it to the wheels, unless something has gone terribly wrong? If you have a good understanding of four channel ABS systems, you are at a good starting point to take this class. As Honda likes to do things differently, we will discuss the plug-in Honda Clarity and its unique dual master cylinder system.
Thermal Management is a better description than HVAC. The old days of an A/C compressor just making cold air are gone. Welcome to the world of heat pumps and Tesla’s Octovalve. One hour will not be enough time to go through all of the systems that are used in the latest electric vehicles but you will be familiar with moving energy, both hot and cold, around the vehicle to warm things up that are cold and cool things down that are warm. One of our students recently told us that the thermal management system on our EVs are more complicated than the electric drive that turns the wheels. I couldn’t agree more.
ACDC recently sold our exclusive break-out-box (BOB) to Harley Davidson R&D in Arizona so they could examine the problem their having with their Live Wire pure electric motorcycle. With our in-house R&D at ACDC, we have designed and built years ago a BOB to examine the signals between the charger and the car and the EVSE that brings ac power to the vehicle. EVSE stands for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment. You will learn what needs to happen at the charger in the car and they EVSE so that a car can recharge its battery pack. We will also talk about greening the grid in the current state of affairs in recycling the packs that no longer are suitable for use in an EV.
After you have read our book (please buy my book, it is totally awesome. I will even give you a payment plan if you’re broke) we will review the entire series and also bring you up to date with any new developments as this class will not be over until the end of April. We will talk about tools and equipment, even things I don’t sell, so that you are ready for the next series on specific OEMs.