Types of Hybrid and Electrical Vehicles

Types of Hybrid and Electrical Vehicles

There are many types of hybrid and electrical vehicles on the road today. Here we will walk you through the different types of vehicles and what makes the different.

Why is it important to know about these systems and what makes up these systems? Be sure to check out our page here about the safety procedures and training we have gone though to be IMI Level 2 Certified to power down these systems. Learn More Here!

 

Types of Electric Vehicles

Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV)

These vehicles have a smaller style internal combustion engine and an electrical generator. Unlike a hybrid where the small engine works to move the vehicle, on this type of vehicle the small internal combustion engine is used just to provide electricity to the generator and is NOT used to move the vehicle in any way.

Example: Chevrolet Volt

Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV)

This is the most common of electric vehicle. They have not only a gas engine but also an electric motor. These are the types of vehicles that “shut off” when stopped then quickly start back up when taking off, these style hybrids are called “micro-hybrids.”

Hybrid example: Toyota Prius

Micro Hybrid: 2019 Toyota Camry

Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)

These types of vehicles get their batteries charged from an external source like an outlet at your home or work.

They are similar to conventional hybrids in that they have both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. What sets these vehicles apart from a hybrid though is unlike conventional hybrids, PHEVs can substitute electricity from the grid for gasoline. This allows them to not need any gasoline to run.

Example: 2017 Hyundai Sonata PHEV

Full Electric Vehicle (EV) Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV)

A vehicle powered solely by energy stored in a type of battery, or batteries.  An EV/BEV is not a hybrid vehicle.

Example: All  Tesla Models

 

If you’d like to learn more about these vehicles or have damage on your own hybrid or electric vehicle, give us a call!

Click Here to Call

Electric Vehicles and Dent Repair

Electric Vehicles and Dent Repair

Electric Vehicles and Dent Repair

It’s no doubt today that we are seeing more electric and hybrid vehicles on the road today and they are in need of dent repairs. These vehicles will continue to gain popularity and will continue to become more efficient. They will continue to extend your driving experience while using less fuel and some being full electric requiring NO fuel!

 

When doing paintless dent repair on these types of vehicles, there are more safety precautions that need to be taken. These vehicles have High Voltage DC Power systems running through them which can be of great danger if not handled safely.

How Do You Work With These Systems?

When working on these electric vehicles you need to know where the high voltage systems are located. We have access to programs that layout these systems and locations on vehicles. Something as simple as a dent in a fender, in the past, was as simple as gaining access through the fender liner or in through the engine bay.

Now there can be High Voltage cables running through even a fender and also in the engine bay. These components need to be identified and at times these high voltage systems need to be disabled to perform repairs.

Learn more about the different Electric and Hybrid systems here!

 

We here at Sioux Falls Dent Repair have taken advanced courses on these types of systems AND have the proper safety equipment to properly work on and power down these High Voltage Systems.

Tesla Hail Damage Removal - Sioux Falls Dent Repair

 

We are the ONLY shop in the state of South Dakota that is certified by the IMI for Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Level 2 Power Down Procedures.

Dealing with these systems is about safety.  The safety of the technician, the safety for you, the vehicle owner and your family. Also for the safety of the vehicle itself and any anyone else that comes into contact with the vehicle.

These High Voltage systems can cause serious injury or death if not handled with the proper precautions. Don’t trust just anyone to repair your vehicle, be sure to make sure anyone that works on your vehicle equipped with any of these systems has the proper knowledge to do so.

 

If you have any questions on any of these systems or have damage in your own vehicle give us a call today!

Click Here To Call Us!

Diagnostic Computer Scanning

Diagnostic Computer Scanning

Pre and Post Diagnostic Computer Scanning

Have you heard of pre and post diagnostic scanning?

Well today we walk you through the whole entire process around computer scanning and doing paintless dent repair.

Why Is This Necessary?

Diagnostic Scanning is often a required operation when working on today’s modern vehicles. This vehicle we are demonstrating with today is a 2018 Chevy Silverado. This customer purchased this vehicle brand new, it only had 7k miles on it when it came to us to have a dent removed. General Motors, the vehicles manufacture actually REQUIRES a diagnostic scan when disconnecting the battery. They also require it when disconnecting ANY electrical component on this vehicle. This is often a over looked process that many body shops, mechanics and paintless dent repair companies do not do when doing repairs on vehicles.

Here we walk you through the entire process of how this is done and specifically why it is done. We also show you how we go about gaining access to this dent in the left front door near the handle. We had to remove the door panel as well as the door handle assembly in order to make this repair. Once the dent is removed with paintless dent repair we are able to put the vehicle back together. From there we then run a Post diagnostic scan to ensure everything is in working order. We make sure to print off the scan documents and show them to the customer. When we showed this customer that his scans showed a fault code for the radio the said that the battery had gone dead previously. That was why the code was set in the first place.

The customer was happy that we did run a scan and bring this to his attention. A radio code is nothing serious but there are items like mentioned in the video, that can be a bigger issue if a fault code is set. Read more about scanning and other computer related information.

Click Here To Learn More

Do you have more questions or need a repair done on your own vehicle?

You can contact us multiple ways:

Call Us!

Text Us!

Email Us!

Fill out our contact form and we will contact you!

Dent Repair Myths

Dent Repair Myths

“How hard can it be?”

You might ask yourself “how hard can dent repair be?” You’ve done many do it yourself style repairs throughout the years. Things around the house from minor repairs such as a door handle change. Maybe you even do major items such as plumbing, electrical or roofing. You change your own oil on your car and do other auto repairs, why not pop your own dent out? Today we are going to talk to you about do it your self dent repairs.

Dent Repair Myths

  1. Dent just pop out
  2. Use suction cups to suck the dents out
  3. Use magnets to pull the damage out
  4. Applying dry ice to the dent will make it come out
  5. Heat like a hair drier makes the dents come out
  6. Pour hot or even boiling water on the dent makes it come out
  7. Applying a cold spray to the dent, perhaps even after heating makes the dent come out
  8. Park your car in the hot sun and the dents will work there way out from the heat

Do these methods work? 

Have you seen a video of a person putting a suction cup on a big dent on a car and pulling on it. The dent makes a popping noise as the suction cup comes off and the dent looks gone. Well it appears to look gone. Once it is looked at at multiply angles the damage will looks wavy or at least less noticeable. To some people this is exactly what they want. They want the damage to be not such a big eye sore, or noticeable at be the most affordable for price. For this expectation this might be the perfect solution. To others that want the damage to look as if it never happened and completely undetectable this is not an acquitted fix.

Once a repair is attempted its is often not fixable or much more difficult to make a proper repair.

Magnets and Hair Driers

We do not use any type of magnets to pull any type of damage out, and hair driers if used improperly can actually cause paint damage by overheating it. If the paint in say a white vehicle is overheated it will get yellow or brown and the only fix for this is to now repaint the panel. This damage can happen in other colors but it is harder to see in darker colors.

Cold and Dry Ice

There is an old school method of shrinking the metal when it is over stretched. When the metal can be  pushed up as a high spot then lightly pushed on and it falls back in, and it will flip flop back and forth. To shrink metal you must put it through a very fast heat and cold cycle. To do this you take a torch and extremely heat the metal (burn the paint) then cool it off very fast with water(not dry ice). This again was a old school method and requires repainting to be done. Today’s vehicles are made up with different metals then they were back in the good ol’ days.  Most new metals are actually extremely weakened when heated.

Parking In The Sun

For parking in the sun, the reason people tend to think this makes the dents go away is cause they are typically looking at their vehicle in the parking lot. Most dont have anything to compare the damage to except for clouds and the sun, these are the worst conditions to look at a cars panels for dents because you cannot accurately see anything. This is why when looking for damage the best conditions are in a shop setting.

Hopefully this answers any of your do it yourself questions, if you happen to have any other questions or have a dent you need repaired, give us a call:

605-595-4061

Audi Dent Repair & Removal

Audi Dent Repair & Removal

Audi Dent Repair & Removal

 

Here we are walking you through the entire process on how we repair these door dings in this 2018 Audi Q5. This vehicle has only 8k miles on it! The customer originally brought it to us for the dent in the rear door. We gave her an estimate and scheduled the repair a couple weeks later. Later on the vehicle was brought to us for us to do the repair it had actually received another dent in the front door! We were able to do both of these repairs in an afternoon. The customer dropped the vehicle off before work and picked it up dent free after work.

In order to do these repairs we need to gain access to the backside of the damaged areas. We do this by first rolling down the windows of the damaged doors. We then install a stainless steel window guard between the window and the outer sheet metal of the door. This guard protects the window from any type of damage. It also allows us access to the damaged areas of the door without having to remove the door trim panel. We then install an inflatable window wedge in the door channel opening. We then pump it full of air to slowly and safely expand the window opening. From there we install our tools through the top of the window channel and are able to slowly work this metal out and make this dent slowly disappear.

Once the dents are then removed, we then take some extra steps to buff the minor scuffs in the paint from the impact that caused the dents. We then follow that with some rubbing compound and buffing followed by polishing the areas and a final wipe down to clean the panels off. The damage is now completely gone and undetectable, it’s like the damage had never even happened.

 

To see more small dents repaired, Click Here