The Hybrid Shop Partners with Tom Gage, Announces Plans to Enter Commercial Vehicle Market

TORRANCE, Calif., March 1, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Tom Gage, one of the godfathers and early innovators in the Electric Vehicles (EV) segment, has joined forces with 'The Hybrid Shop' to lead their expansion efforts into the commercial EV market. He was introduced to The Hybrid Shop's dealer principals recently at the annual dealer meeting at the company's Torrance, CA World Headquarters, where he addressed the group on the development of small-cell lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Gage has been commercializing electric vehicles since joining Alan Cocconi at AC Propulsion in 1995. There, they developed the tzero electric sports car which set new standards for efficiency and performance. The tzero inspired Martin Eberhard to found Tesla Motors, which, in 2018, delivered 80 percent of the EVs sold in the United States. Mr. Gage has since founded EV Grid to develop battery systems for vehicles, microgrid, and renewable energy storage. EV Grid works with automotive OEMs and commercial site operators to develop battery systems that reduce cost and improve efficiency. At the Hybrid Shop meeting, Gage noted, "The commercial vehicle market is the next logical step in the commercialization of fully electric drivetrains. Battery cost reduction and increasing reliability and range mean that operating cost benefits will soon make electric trucks irresistible to commercial fleet managers."

Gage went on to say "Joining forces with The Hybrid Shop is a great fit because they are addressing a huge market that already exists – hybrid vehicle batteries. They understand the need for commercialization." The company is under new ownership, supported by Itochu, a global-entity with worldwide resources. A new direction and business plan have been established by Martin Kruszelnicki and Yutaka Miyazaki to drive electrification, with the objective to improve the environment through the reduction of emissions.

The Hybrid Shop is a battery-technology-environmental company specializing in remanufacturing Nickel–metal hydride batteries. 'The Hybrid Shop' goes to market through retail franchisees, providing dealers with High-Voltage proportioning training, diagnostic equipment, marketing support, and replacement battery packs for hybrid vehicles. As the commercial market develops, through vehicles like Hino-195H, the company has plans in place to ramp-up efforts to build out a commercial network of dealers to service this burgeoning segment.

PAT technology, which helps increase battery life and reduces the cost of electrification, has been developed by The Hybrid Shop. Remanufactured batteries feed vehicle information back through the cloud, which evaluates the data developing a predictive model which will help fleet managers to reduce costs through servicing vehicles before they breakdown. Ultimately, this will reduce downtime and work to improve efficiencies for commercial fleets. Training technicians to work on this developing segment is a key success element. There is little legacy knowledge in the hybrid and electric vehicle segment, and classes are being developed by industry leaders like Kruszelnicki and Mark Saxonberg, who spent 28-years with Toyota and co-conceived one of the industry's first electronic service information systems. Saxonberg managed the alternative fuel vehicle and environmental program, and was an ASE-master technician with L3 certification. He is a consultant to The Hybrid Shop, working to develop a vision of recruiting and training highly competent personnel, establishing customer focused business performance standards, and developing our human resources through mentoring and clearly defined development paths.

About 'The Hybrid Shop' (THS)

The Hybrid Shop team has years of extensive knowledge and experience in electric and hybrid vehicles, components, service, and repair. The company is committed to investing in research and development of new products, especially replacement high voltage batteries, that reduce costs for vehicle owners, increase profits for our franchise partners and provide a more sustainable solution. The mission of the company is to share its specialized electric-and hybrid-vehicle knowledge, plus create jobs and profits with its growing franchise network. The Hybrid Shop franchise partner network is expected to grow to over 400 locations worldwide.

The Hybrid Shop franchise partners serviced and repaired over 30,000 electric and hybrid vehicles in 2017 from all OEM brands. THS is committed to supporting all our electric and hybrid vehicle customers with the best service, while growing our network of Dealers. For additional information about THS, please visit http://www.thehybridshop.com

SOURCE The Hybrid Shop