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Thinking of becoming an Enginer Installer

Discussion in 'Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications' started by Spanks79, Apr 18, 2011.

  1. Spanks79

    Spanks79 New Member

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    Hello, I am a shop owner, I do quite a bit of hybrid work. I am thinking of becoming a Enginer installer. I have a kit and it looks well built, though a bit like a science project, and pretty straight forward to install. I have lots of experience doing HV work along with 35 years of automotive service and repair work. My biggest concern is the quality and reliability of the kit. In my business I make a habit of using high quality parts and performing high quality work on my customers cars. I have read a lot on both PC and the Enginer forum and I am beginning to have second thoughts about installing this in my car and selling it to my customers. Does anyone have any input? Am I being paranoid or are my concerns justified?
     
  2. Octane

    Octane Proud Member of 100 MPG Club

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    They are straight forward to install. However, Enginer is currently switching components suppliers and is in a state of transition. I'd wait for a few weeks to see where it all goes.
     
  3. Flaninacupboard

    Flaninacupboard Senior Member

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    Install it in your car, fine. install it in a customer car, no. Defect rates on parts are 20% plus, and the BMS doesn't work at all.

    Unless you have the time/can charge a customer for your time to do a couple of weeks testing (and repairing) in your own car on each kit before you put it in a customer car it is not worth it.

    Don't get me wrong, it -does- work and the results are -really- good considering the price, but it is not yet a hassle free product.
     
  4. Spanks79

    Spanks79 New Member

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    Thanks for the replies. I was actually thinking of using my car as a debug platform to get each kit tuned up before installing it in a customers car. I bought the car specifically to use in and for the business, so i am not opposed to it. I have, some tolerance for the up front tweaking, but I am more afraid of the problems that may arise down the road. Keeping in mind that whatever I sell and install, I will be "married" to. I may go ahead and install the kit and just make sure I prequalify my customers, just so they understand that this a moving target. Otherwise, I can suggest a Hymotion or Plug in Supply system.
     
  5. Flaninacupboard

    Flaninacupboard Senior Member

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    As Octane says, they are busy trying to change suppliers. The batteries seem ok (we don't have longevity data yet, though) if you get a working converter it seems ok (mine has been running since december) same with the charger. The BMS is the real problem, and if you were to do this i'd reccomend not getting the supplied BMS16D and putting in a miniBMS instead.
     
  6. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    I'll add my two pence worth.

    I was tempted by the enginer kit BUT I get the impression it is a kit for the more technical DIYer and not really for someone like me who doesn't know his volt from an amp.

    If you start selling the kits you might get someone forgiving who understands it's new technology pushing the boundarys, but equally you could get someone who having just paid the best part of a months wage on a load of kit wants it to work 100%, 100% of the time - which from reading users comments on this forum - it doesn't yet.

    I guess if you make this 100% clear at the start you should be ok.
     
  7. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I'm w/Grumpy. I have no interest in PHEV kits, but it seems every time I glance at Enginer threads, I get the impression that it's unreliable and hacky.

    If people here on Priuschat have so much trouble w/them, I think you'll end up w/a bunch of unhappy customers (esp. those who aren't tech savvy or EEs), possibly hounding you, demanding refunds, wanting to sue you, etc.

    How about being a HyMotion installer instead? It seems reliable enough (I think) for people like TheForce and rechargeit.org.
     
  8. Octane

    Octane Proud Member of 100 MPG Club

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    A couple of points, yes, it's hacky. Would I personally buy one again? Well, if Enginer stays around to service THE main component, i.e. DC Converter, then yes. Lately, when I stay away from 200 mile round trips on the weekend, I'm routinely getting over 100 MPG reliably.

    Nobody knows if Enginer will survive its current transition. We should begin to know in about 3 weeks.

    That's worth the wait. If it goes well, they will have a very robust system at 30% the cost of anything else and given a very typical driving profile can reliably provide 100+ MPG.
     
  9. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    This is an interesting thread worth to keep an eye on it.
     
  10. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    Spanks79,
    I encourage you to take some time talking to other installer/dealers. Feel free to call me any time or send a PM with a number and time to call you.

    As a shop owner and an installer I would be sure you have liability insurance in place, and additional product liability insurance is probably a good idea as well. For now, each unit that comes directly from Enginer should be bench tested through several cycles of charging/discharging at the very least. In the car would work, too. Many of the quality issues tend to show up with initial tests.

    As an installer you will also want to set a price that makes sure you'll still be able to be in business and make sure you aren't losing money on each unit.

    If you plan on simply installing the units and not providing any after-the sale service, then a low fee like $500 might work. But if you plan on providing any kind of warranty on your labor, $500 will not cut it. As you have read, besides the pre-installation testing, currently there are additional hours spent after the installation tweaking, or replacing components, as well as educating customers and filling in the information voids that Enginer may have missed. To stay in business you cannot do that work for free, so you'll either need to build the cost in up front, or charge by the hour for the services. I would lean towards the former.

    You will be putting your reputation on the line, so be sure to educate and screen customers ahead of time. No sense selling to someone who thinks they are turning their car into a "stomp the pedal to the floor" EV, since that is not what the Enginer system can provide.

    Best of luck.
     
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