Hybrid Hub offers affordable battery conditioning system

• EBL launches second hybrid-vehicle service centre

By Ruwandi Gamage

With the launch of its second Hybrid Hub, Edirisinghe Brothers Ltd. (EBL) is aiming at expanding its services for owners of hybrid vehicles and is geared at revolutionising battery conditioning services in Sri Lanka with the use of the proprietary HV Battery Diagnostic and Conditioning System from Quarto Technical Services, USA.

“We can prolong the hybrid battery life using the technology we have acquired from Quarto Technical Services (QTS), not requiring you to replace anything, for a cost of only Rs. 139,000 with a one year and 50,000 km warranty, despite the make or model of the car. That’s the message we’re trying to get out to the market,” Edirisinghe BrothersHybrid Hub Co-Chief Operating Officer Sanka Edirisinghe explained.

Funded by its parent company, EBL, with the technical knowledge, the training and the required technical tools coming in from Quarto Technical Services, and Optima Werkz Ltd., the second facility at Piliyandala is the largest facility out of the two.

Daily FT held an exclusive interview with Edirisinghe Brothers and experts from QTS, USA and Optima Werkz Ltd, Singapore, partners of EBL, to learn more about this venture.

QTS Chief Technical Officer Dr. Mark Quartois the brains behind the technology of conditioning hybrid batteries. Holding a doctorate in hybrid technology and a bachelor’s in automotive and electrical engineering, Dr. Quarto is specialised in electrics and hybrids and has an experience of 31 years in the industry.

“I started back in 1987, and I actually have been doing this for 31 years. I worked for General Motors for 28 years and most of my time was spent on their hybrid and electric programs and fuel. I’ve been at this at corporate and personal levels for a long time. This is not something I just got into yesterday. This has been a lifelong thing for me,” he added.

Affordable battery diagnostic and conditioning system

At the Hybrid Hub, customers can experience the technology improved upon by Dr. Quarto in its special lab where the hybrid batteries are checked. According to Dr. Quarto, the technology allows to revive the power and energy capacity of weak hybrid batteries to up to 95% of their original capacity. The validated battery conditioning equipment set up in the lab does this by analysing the State-of-Health (SOH) of individual battery modules by connecting directly to the battery. 

“Back in the1990s I worked in an electric car program for General Motors in USA and we are actually one of the companies that pioneered ‘nickel metal hydride’. I learned early on through their program that there’s a process where you can re-use nickel metal hydride battery modules. I took the learnings from that experience and after I retired from General Motors in 2012I started building equipment and processes that would actually stimulate or mimic that same thing we did back in the ’90s for electric cars.”

Earlier, the only available option for hybrid vehicle owners with battery issues was to replace the vehicle battery which would add up to a cost of more than Rs. 500,000 if one purchases an original battery, which is the less risky option.

“In Sri Lanka what most people do is replace the battery with used batteries because they can’t afford to buy a new one. So those generally come from some scrap yard in Japan and are sold here in automobile body part shops. Most likely the battery they are replacing is worse off than the one they had in their vehicle but no one would know about it because nobody has the diagnostic tools to test it,” Edirisinghe explained.

At Hybrid Hub, customers are advised to undertake a State of Health (SOH) check, developed by Dr. Mark, where it checks the drive motors, the electric motors, the generator, the inverter, the dissing converter and the battery. The SOH costs under Rs. 11,000 and produces a prediction report identifying faults in the system. This is part of Dr. Quarto’s technology and it yields a more in-depth status of the vehicle’s system as opposed to scans done in other service centres.

“We can condition your battery up to 95% of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). You can’t get that anywhere. As a result, the savings are more than 50%. We can prolong the hybrid battery life by doing these regular checks, not requiring you to replace anything. To do that we need proper diagnostic tools and technology, which is what we get from Dr. Quarto and Optima Werkz. Other places only do scans which show only voltages and it may not be enough to take a decision on the battery,” said EBL Hybrid Hub Operations Manager G. Prakash Kumar, speaking about their value-added services.

Customer focused and use of affordable technical solutions

Hybrid Hub has already gained a reputation among its customers for being very customer focused and for its affordable technical solutions. Dr. Quarto explained that the similarity of values between EBL and QTS led to the assurance to partner with EBL and added that QTS was very serious about their partnerships. “EBL is very customer focused, I am too; they want to find technical solutions and I want to provide technical solutions. There were a lot of values that lined up for me. We get offers from time to time to partner with people and we turn them down. You can build technology with anybody but it’s always easier to buildif your values are aligned.” The middle man behind the partnership between QTS and EBL is Optima Werkz, which had partnered up with QTS when it had experienced the issue of high costs of replacing hybrid batteries in Singapore.

“Optima Werkz introduced us to Sanka, who was looking to launch the services in Sri Lanka and it was easy for us to partner with them after discussions about what plans they had, how they wanted to serve their customers and how they wanted to be experts to really serve their clients with great service,” Dr. Quarto added.

Back in 2014, when Singapore was facing the same issue of replacing batteries of hybrid vehicles, Optima Werkz had brought Dr. Quarto’s technology into their country. With this information, EBL had reached out to Optima to build a partnership and serve customers here in Sri Lanka.

“In 2015, three businessmen from EBL visited Optima Werkz in Singapore. After months of evaluations, discussions on the background, work ethics and values of this company, Optima Werkz decided to partner with EBL to be franchise partners. We realised it is a company so focused in the automotive trade, and that aligns with our company’s values as well,” added Optima Werkz Operation Manager Rick Lew, who also was visiting Sri Lanka to attend the grand opening of the second Hybrid Hub facility.

Equipped, trained and praised service

Hybrid Hub has been able to deliver excellent and affordable service to its customers with Dr. Quarto’s technology and the right tech support from Optima Werkz, providing Hybrid Hub with the essential diagnostic tools.

“We are only dedicated to serving hybrid vehicles. This difference and our dedicated and trained staff, together with the newest technology and tools made us stand out from the rest,” Edirisinghe said.

All the technicians and advisors that are recruited to work at the Hybrid Hub undergo a complete training process supervised by Dr. Quarto himself, either in person or through webinars.

“I think it’s important that the training is always grounded in face-to-face meetings. The important parts are always done in person. The only way for me to evaluate anybody is to train them and then watch them and help them. Most of the things that we do really can’t be taught theoretically. This kind of training really has to be done in person and I’m onsite to do that,” Dr. Quarto added.

As of last month, hybrid Hub’s customer base has increased from zero to more than 4,500. It believes that this success gained in just two years is due to technology and its recruitment process combined with the training and dedication of its employees.

Edirisinghe Brothers encourages hybrid vehicle owners to visit their facility and experience a service it promises is the best in the market.