From EV Technician Training to Unforgettable American Drives

Speaker 1: Welcome to another In Wheel Time Car Talk podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the in wheel time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11 am, central Live from studio a and inside the sugar shack world headquarters. It's the in wheel time car talk show. Somebody's got a red face over here coming up. We talked to Hugh Mann From the Houston Community College about its EV curriculum. You listening, EV fans, it's for you. Jeff has a segment on USA road trips and famous driving destinations. Konrad will have the racing calendar and the car clinic and we'll also have the stories making automotive news headlines this week. We're gonna stick it in fourth gear just ahead on the in wheel time car talk show. 

Speaker 1: You're gonna plug it in along with Mike out of this world, Marrs, King Konrad Delong. We always need more. Jeff Dziekan, I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us today, day before the Indy 500. 

Speaker 2: Monaco Grand Prix and the world 600. 

Speaker 1: Yeah, Coca-Cola. 

Speaker 2: Is it still Coca-Cola? 

Speaker 1: 600? Why can't I hear you? Jeff Can't know there. you go There. Yeah, okay, all right. our guest now is Hugh man, Houston Community College of Automotive Technology and their electric Vehicle curriculum. Hugh, good morning, thanks for joining us. Is this the first of, I assume, many classes to come with the electric vehicles? 

Speaker 4: Yeah, good morning. Thanks for having me back, guys, I appreciate it. Yeah, we're still. We hadn't rolled out the first class yet. We're still developing it. You know, it seems here lately It's on the education side, momentum seem to have picked up. 

Speaker 4: More people are are calling and inquiring and have an interest in one book programs together. So We are developing the first class right now and it'll be started and rolled out kind of as a Continuing education program. You know we're we're building multiple sizes to fit different customer base, whether it be a one-day, six, eight hour class to a two or three day Program. But and it's kind of a, it's a mix, it's a it's a hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle class Kind of put into one to start with. And when does it start? We're probably about a month out from actually flipping the switch and offering the first class. We got a couple companies out that have approached us that have Kind of stepped up. Today We want to be the guinea pig, we want to do the first class and We're putting together some stuff to train Mostly their technicians, existing technicians that are already out there that are just trying to get More knowledge base, knowledgeable on the EV and the hybrid vehicles and how to deal with them, how to evaluate them, how to be safe with them. 

Speaker 2: Are you getting any support from any of the OEMs? 

Speaker 4: Not a lot. You know, like with most OEM training, they they kind of have their own program They want, they want their guys to go to their own program. What we're focusing on is a Lot of the aftermarket shop areas, people like Carmax, 
Firestone, NTB, some organizations that have fleets. You know we we work real close with the city of Houston, doing some training for them and working out some of theirs along with. We've even been in discussions with Metro and and doing some stuff with them. They, you know they, metro just took delivery of their first fully electric bus, so they're looking to Bobby looking for a place to plug it in. 

Speaker 1: Very possible. Yeah, i can't so with the charger be the same as a regular car charger. But that thing that you plug in, that huge big, it's a great big thing. I mean big plug. Well, i mean, would it be a great big plug, probably a thicker cord or thicker, i don't know cable. 

Speaker 2: I mean I just have it. Just depends on how much power you're trying to push into it in a period of time. 

Speaker 1: Well, there's that. But I can't imagine a bus Powered by electric motors and batteries. Can you imagine how much, how much it weighs without that? Well Hummers 9,000 pounds. 

Speaker 4: It's the voltage and stuff that's gonna make the difference and I'll be willing to bet you a 240 like a supercharger is Still used and it's going to be that that bigger 240 type plug. 

Speaker 2: So, hey, hugh, out at Houston Community College to do EV training, they've got to make a pretty decent investment in your training program, not just in equipment but in the infrastructure of the shop, of the power sources to do recharging and stuff, as well as the safety. You know, i know the, you know My. My thing is, you know, first thing you need to do when you learn how to work on an electric vehicle Is how to pull the guy off that got bit, whether you use a 2x4 or the fifth, the, the swimming hook. 

Speaker 3: Well, they got to understand the value of it too. What's the ROI for the school? 

Speaker 2: Yep, well, i think return on investment for the school be pretty good, because there's nobody else out there doing EV training to speak of Except the other way, which means that the independent aftermarket shops have only one and that'll be your program will only have one resource to go get trained on. I know there's some independent training that goes on on it, but not very much. So it'll be nice to see a Regular program that independent shops can go to to learn about their EV program, their EV Vehicles yet to my knowledge There's some. 

Speaker 4: There's some private companies out there doing some training. I Don't know any of the other local Community colleges or local colleges that have any programs in place yet. I'm pretty sure we're all working on them. You know, the biggest thing with the big trucks and the buses, from discussions I've had with a couple other people is And this is one of the one of the things that really hampers The commercial industry from going fully electric is the, the time frame it would take to charge one right, the. You can't. You can't really do the rapid charge on them like you can't a car because of the, the power that they take, the heat generated to do some type of rapid charge. Just you wouldn't be able to do it. They basically would have to park overnight and charge at a longer time frame, which kind of limits them to a regional type Delivery trucker. Something's gonna stay close. I don't see him going over the road anytime soon and to do a fleet of buses. 

Speaker 2: Let's say you're trying to charge 30 or 40 buses overnight. You might as well roll in a. Generator an electric train, a generated train, and use the generator on that to charge all the rest of them, because that's the only thing That's. 

Speaker 1: I was thinking about bringing up to South Texas nuclear power project. 

Speaker 3: You go, just hook it up to that and for a rapid, a rapid charge on a rapid transit. 

Speaker 1: Rapid charge on a rapid transit. I don't know There's anything rapid about. 

Speaker 2: So which which location is your program gonna run out of? I know you guys have the one off an airline And then you also have one up in the northeast side of town. 

Speaker 4: Yeah, the Continuing, and we'll start it probably at our north, at our we'll call our north force locations, so one over off more northeast, off East New York and Homestead area. It's a. It's our newer facility. We got a little extra room over there, so it'll it'll be started there eventually. 

Speaker 2: We'll offer it at both, at both locations and we're the the Prius cutaway cars where those donated to you from Toyota, or how did you guys acquire those? 

Speaker 3: I've got some for a video I'm gonna pull up while you're talking about that. 

Speaker 4: you Oh, no problem. No, actually we purchased those from a, a training for a private training provider. They They started making them. I think, other than their demo one that they first built, we, i think we got the first two and They are their second gen Priuses. The the neat thing about them is, obviously, you know, they did kind of cut half the car away In the. In the pictures you can see On the backside there's one where you can see the hybrid battery. The hybrid battery that's mounted out in the open is basically gutted. There's nothing in it. 

Speaker 3: It's just for identification and yeah, just to show, just a case correct. 

Speaker 4: Right in front of it You'll see the cover under the actual hybrid battery that's still in the car. And then on the front They did the same thing. We got an inverter that's mounted up and on top of the engine compartment for identification, and then The real inverter still in. So these cars, even though they're cut away and got spare you know Dummy parts out there, they're fully operational. You can get in them, drive them wherever you want to drive them. 

Speaker 4: We can still hook all the diagnostic equipment up to them And show how and put bugs in them and and so forth and so on. But it's nice because you, if you take a live car, you're always explaining to the students you know About the battery, about all the orange cables, about all the connections, but you can't really show them on a live car until you disable it. With these Dummy parts on them It's easier for the students to be able to take an inverter apart and see all the components inside an inverter without the danger Of the high voltage now I know There are some people out there that will teach people how to Service individual cells in the Prius hybrid battery pack. 

Speaker 2: Will that be something in your program or is it pretty much swap a pack? 

Speaker 4: It could be in the future. Right now it's it's just swapping out the battery itself, changing the battery. Our Our first class, the first one-day class, primarily Is a safety class, more than anything. We're how to be safe where the, where the danger parts are. And then we get into Some basic testing and how to, how to tell whether a batteries or whether the the battery, the hybrid battery, is good If it's good, bad if it has an issue, and then swapping that battery out And just kind of covering the basics of difference between a 12 volt in the high, in the high voltage side and so forth. 

Speaker 2: Yeah, we had. Last week we had a company on that actually is selling a device to basically sniff the battery, to simplify it, to sniff the battery for outgassing And that outgassing is an indication of the probability of a thermal runaway as the battery gets hot and expands that outgassing. Their device sniffs for the outgassing of it. And a pretty interesting interview I thought we had with him last week because it's a technology I think there's a real reason to have And I know electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles are truly a major part of the auto industry right now and in the future are going to be even a bigger part. 

Speaker 2: So to see you guys get involved in putting together a training program for the independent shops I think is pretty important. And yeah, starting with safety is going to be the first thing. I remember when the Nissan Leaf first came out I'd go into a Nissan store and they would get out the police tape and the stanchions and they'd surround the car with police tape and stanchions. That was because you were there, but just to make sure they kept everybody away because if that electrical system gets a hold of you it's going to stick And that's where the hook or the 2x4 comes in, is trying to pry you off of it. 

Speaker 4: Well, I heard your interview last week with that gentleman. It was interesting. I started to do a little research into that myself based off y'all's interview with him. We kind of got those stanchions too that we put around the cars, Not only explaining the safety of where to touch, what not to touch, and on top of that we even have a safety protocol in place of a lock box to put the key fob in and explain to them how far the key fob's got to be away from the car so the car can't see the signal and can't energize the car while you're trying to work on it, and so forth. 

Speaker 4: Also in the slideshow I had some pictures in there, some electrical training boards that we purchased. Those are made by a company called Lucas Newell. They're out of Germany. The first one is a hybrid electric vehicle simulator training board. It will actually simulate five different power trains from a series hybrid to a parallel hybrid series, parallel hybrid, full electric and hydrogen. It's built where we can put bugs in the car. It's got a built-in scan tool built into the board. It's designed to be used to train guys for the ASC L3 electric test, electrical vehicle test. It's also the only electric vehicle training board that's endorsed and approved for Skills USA. It's what they use in their national contest for testing students on electrical vehicle diagnosis and troubleshooting. The second board that I had a picture of in there was also made by the same company, Lucas Newell. We got a couple of those. It's a first responder training board. It's simply set up. It's got four or five scenarios that you can pick condition-wise to train first responders where to disconnect power and how to disconnect power in different areas within the system. 

Speaker 2: Yeah, because if they're going into something that they're going to have to get out the jaws of life, they've got to be very cautious about where they start touching stuff in a hybrid vehicle or in a full EV, they can hurt them as well as whoever's stuck in the car. So well, cool, glad to see a Houston Community College is kind of leading the industry here, reaching out to do something for the independent shops to get them more skills and experience working on the EVs. Starting with safety makes sense. We've had Dean on the show a number of times. I know Mike and I've known Mike Cleveland for quite some time. 

Speaker 2: He's been a fan of the show as well, so glad to see you guys are out there growing the industry and doing what we can to help the industry here in town. Thanks a lot for coming on. 

Speaker 4: Thank you, thanks for having us. We appreciate you all giving us an opportunity and the platform to come let everybody know what's available and what we're doing out there. 

Speaker 4: Hey, Hugh, don't y'all have an open house coming up pretty quick. Actually we do on June 10th Actually I think June 10th at our North Forest location, which is the one at 6010 East Little York. It's on the corner of Little York and Homestead. It's a campus-wide kind of a re-grand opening again, but it's for the whole campus, not just the automotive, but that is where our second automotive location is And we'll be doing tours and some demonstrations. 

Speaker 4: We've got a paint simulator we'll have out there where you can simulate painting. You're doing some painting, body painting, body work and we'll do some other demos and have some little one-hour half-hour, one-hour seminars on vehicle inspection and maintenance as well. As they'll be doing other things with other programs That same location. We teach welding, hvac. We actually have an audio recording program there where we actually have a full recording studio at that location, and all that will be open to the public for tours And again there'll be other seminars there as well within the other programs. So I believe it runs from about 9 to 1 in the afternoon. Everybody's welcome to come out and take a look and check out the new campus. 

Speaker 1: Very good. 

Speaker 4: These graduating seniors, you need to go. 

Speaker 1: Thank you very much. University, community College of Automotive Technology, hue, man Or human. Here you go, if you say it fast. Alright, inwheel time race card. I'm sorry he hasn't heard that The inwheel time race card is sponsored by Texas Nostalgia Modified Production. 

Speaker 2: And this is a racing weekend. Make it quick? Well, because he's got a big thing here. So it's a we start in the morning on Sunday with Monaco Grand Prix, and then in the early afternoon it goes to the Indy 500. And then in the evening is the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. So there's going to be about 1400 miles of racing on Sunday. 

Speaker 1: And 1400 hours of coverage. 

Speaker 3: Yeah, I would be 800 hours of coverage. And with that. 

Speaker 2: I'll give you, mr Jeff Dziekin. 

Speaker 1: Yes, Jeff Dziekin's got a very special little special feature On the road again. USA Roadtrip's famous driving destinations. We play a little Willie Nelson. 

Speaker 2: No, we're not going to play any music, we're not going to play any music. 

Speaker 1: We're not going to play any music. 

Speaker 3: Well, i want to tell you that many will say that going on an epic road trip is the best. 

Speaker 2: Where's the opening? 

Speaker 3: screen. I already flicked it Come on boys. 

Speaker 1: You need to keep up, we're not taking notes. 

Speaker 3: It's the only way to experience America. This is the land of open road, roadside attractions and roadside diners. The first one, which this is. This is California Route 1, pacific Coast Highway 1. It starts in San Diego and it ends in Mendocino, california. It is a 656 mile trek, camping in Big Sur. if you wish to do that It's for the ultimate California road trip Consider driving the entire stretch of Pacific Route 1. This epic route, which should take at least a week Some people take two Brings you to some gorgeous coastline and not small, bustling little towns. Stunningly beautiful. Drive It's gorgeous. 

Speaker 2: Absolutely. You can stop in at the Hearst Castle just north of Cambria. 

Speaker 3: You can. The only one we have is Route 66. What a classic. It's a classic road trip across America. It starts in Chicago, illinois, and ends in Santa Monica, california. 

Speaker 2: Or if you do it at a first, And that's what the sign looks like in Chicago Illinois. 

Speaker 3: It does, it does And it actually takes Illinois, missouri, kansas, oklahoma, texas, new Mexico, arizona and, of course, it ends in California. It's a 2,448 mile trip And this is the typical Americana, or what they say is Merca in the United States. Over the years, route 66 has been immortalized by Hollywood films, musicians and novels. One of the best parts of Route 66 is watching the landscape shift from the Great Plains and the Mississippi wetlands into the deserts and mountains of West Coast roadside landscapes Entering Texas, new Mexico and Arizona can be surreal, and there's no place like the American Southwest. 

Speaker 2: And there's all kinds of museums about Route 66 along the drive as well that you could plan on stopping in And you have to take the trip to do it. Well, we had one of the Route 66 museums on the show last year. 

Speaker 3: The next one we have. We're going to go to the other coast and this is Florida A1A. This is the overseas highway. I don't know if I would like to do this, but I'm kind of afraid. It's a 340 mile trip. It's all beaches. It starts in Amelia Island, florida, and it ends in the Florida Keys. It's a 340 mile distance, like we said, driving across Mike what The Caribbean Sea. Florida A1A runs the entire length of the Atlantic Floridian Coast and further into the Caribbean Sea Portions that connect the mainland to Florida Keys, which they call it. The Florida Keys Scenic Byway used to be called the transway. 

Speaker 2: You can't do that anymore, but it can be by, it just can't be trans. 

Speaker 3: It's an engineering marvel. It is one of the highlights of the trip Riding across the Caribbean and the likes of. 

Speaker 3: Ernest Hemingway's home and Key West. You can also find some more smaller towns, quieter towns like Cocoa Beach and Viral Beach. They're still surfing out there. I got a friend of mine that's from Cocoa Beach. He said it's absolutely gorgeous. Someday we'll do that. But these are trips you got to take for the summertime. 

Speaker 3: The next one, which is my favorite, another route, but this is Route 61. It's called the Blues Highway. It's some of the most significant musical sites in America. It starts in New Orleans and it ends in Wyoming, minnesota. It goes through Louisiana, mississippi, tennessee, arkansas, missouri, iowa, wisconsin and of course it ends in Minnesota. It's a 1400 mile trip and again it's Merca. Route 61 is called the Blues Highway because it's been part of so many American musicians' lives. This means the greatest blues singers, rockers, country whalers At one point had been on this highway to drive to a road or drive to a gig. On this road There's the BB King Museum, heartbreak Hotel and some of the most hallowed music venues. Concert halls in the country are along this route. The infamous crossroads where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil for fame, at the intersection of highway 1 and Highway 8 sounds like a Charlie's Daniels band. 

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so Yep years ago, but we're not allowed to play it. I love to play it, that's right. No, we're not. 

Speaker 1: Well, i control that over here, so it ain't getting on here. 

Speaker 3: And the last one folks look in your backyard. You can take a day trip, and I referenced this because when my way to not look like that when we went to 

Speaker 3: imagine new Bronfels coming back. Kathy and I had a great time stopping in all these little towns, stopping all the barbecue places, buying all the little knickknacks and things. Do Bronfels anything? but this is called Texas Hill Country. It's just west of Austin. The distance depends on you and where you want to go. Conrad, it's not just oil fields and deserts. In Texas. You got greenery. You've got a lot of biking trails, hiking trails, mountain off-road stuff that you can do tasty barbecue. Consider a trip in your backyard. I'm looking forward to go to Grandbury. This is gonna be a blast, i agree. 

Speaker 1: I agree, Yep Well thank you, have it. 

Speaker 1: Well, that's go enjoy the road this summer. I have an Indy 500 feature that I want to do now because I know how the show goes and we'll run out of time before I get Time to do it. Okay, green flag, it starts. The Indy 500 schedule for Sunday, may 28th, holds extra significance this year. This is from automotive news. The 33 open-wheel cars will be the cleanest, greenest and potentially meanest in the 107 year history of the classic American race. Indy cars will be burning 100% renewable bio fuel, using carbon neutral motor oil and Orbiting the oval on tires made of recycled plastics. Isn't this? even some of these support trucks Delivering supplies to the track will be electric power. Now you, you can poopoo this if you want, but this is the way that it is running on poopoo. 

Speaker 1: You just need to. You just need to shut up and listen. This year to 2.2 liter twin turbo V6 engines will power Indy cars, one made by Honda, the other by Chevrolet. Now do you understand the significance of 2.2 liters? Yeah, tiny guys, mm-hmm. 

Speaker 2: Both often run at the limit of 12,000 rpm just a little bit bigger than a big bottle of Coke singer cranking out more than 750 horsepower as they reach speeds topping 230 miles an hour on the 2.5 mile oval. 

Speaker 1: The sidewalls of the Firestone firehawk tires that will be used in five races taking place on street tracks, such as the Detroit Grand Prix, feature a rubber made from Guy Yule, a woodie shrub found in the deserts of the Southwest. Why Uli is probably best known as a source for natural latex used for gloves and medical devices. For IndyCar races run on lovel tracks such as the Indy 500,. The second version of the Firehawk tire contains recycled consumer plastics. It's made with recycled monomers that create a synthetic rubber and is resistant to wear. Those are just some of the highlights, but I wanted to get those stories in there for all you tree huggers out there. So it's supposed to be a carbon neutral race environment at the Indy 500. Running on methanol. 

Speaker 3: Well, and you know they've got to. indeed, the Indy organization has the technology to do that. It's not just them, They've got all these other resources that they can do that with. 

Speaker 4: Wait a little bit. 

Speaker 1: I'm sorry I cut you off because of all the fumbling with the microphone you're doing over there. 

Speaker 1: Well, that's it for Konrad. See you later. See ya, buddy. One other story Hyundai Kia still under legal pressure after settling lawsuits over car thefts. Despite Hyundai and Kia's agreement to a $200 million settlement on the class action lawsuit, the automaker still face a heap of lawsuits and pressure from influential stakeholders. reaching the settlement that litigants welcomed last week is only one step for the automakers. There's still defendants in numerous lawsuits brought by entities seeking damages they claim resulted from Hyundai Kia's decision not to include engine immobilizers as standard equipment on 9 million of their older vehicles on the road. Legal Tangle was sparked by a wave of car thefts last year after a TikTok video demonstrated how to hot wire Hyundai and Kia vehicles that lack an anti-theft device. that effuses situation. Kia and Hyundai have offered owners of 8.3 million of the vehicle's software updates that will enhance the alarms. It also will be working to get steering wheel locks to owners whose vehicles are ineligible for the upgrade. It's a big deal, big deal, a big deal Member. 

Speaker 1: Member. 

Speaker 1: All right, the In Wheel Time Car Talk show is available 24-7 through the iHeart radio app. Just look for In Wheel Time Car Talk. We also video stream on Facebook, YouTube and InWheelTime.com. Podcasts are at your fingertips on over a dozen of the most popular podcast outlets. The In Wheel Time car talk show continues right after this quick break. Come on at the tailpipes and tacos cruise in at the Lupe' Tortilla Tex-Max in Katie. Thank you for participating in the best cruise in around and look forward to seeing you again. You'll hear about the next cruise in date right here on In Wheel Time. Next time you're in the West Houston Energy Corridor area, be sure and stop in at the original Lupe' Tortilla Tex-Max at I-10 and Highway 6 or the Katie location on the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard When passing through Beaumont or College Station. Stop in and have Loupi's award-winning beef fajitas and frozen margaritas. There's always a celebration at Loupi Tortilla. Loupi Tortilla founder Stan Hold and his wife Sheila are winning racers on the NHRA Drag Racing Circuit and have a collection of hot rods and classics that everyone appreciates. Look for them at the next tailpipes and tacos cruise in. The date will be announced soon and will once again be held at the Loupi Tortilla Tex-Max on 99 in Kingsland Boulevard, just south of I-10, and Katie, we'll give you all the details right here on the In Wheel Time car talk show and online Donations benefit God's Garage we'll see you then. 

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