The Truth on EV Maintenance from EV Service Leaders

Everyone says EVs go through tires faster. The service director who's been working on Nissan Leafs since 2018 says that's not what he's seeing — and his explanation is more interesting than the myth.

In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Chris Skinner, Fixed Operations Director at Granbury Nissan in Texas. With 18 years in the industry — from service porter to technician to director — Skinner has watched multiple generations of Leaf and Ariya come through his bays, and he has a blunt take on what EV ownership actually requires.

The conversation covers why EV owners who never visit a service department end up paying for it somewhere else, the three maintenance items that matter most on a Leaf, and why brake fluid is the one most drivers misunderstand. Skinner also opens up the dealer side: what EV certification really costs, why a single technician's resignation can knock a store offline, and why his team hired a product specialist whose only job is teaching customers their own car.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We've hired someone that is a product specialist. Their responsibility is not to sell the car, it's to teach the customer about the car. That's their sole job, is to be the Geek Squad.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Welcome to Eeve Insider by Recurrent, where we make it easier to buy and sell electric cars by giving you access to leaders from across the industry. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Chris, thank you for joining me on EV Insider. Just I'd love to get just a brief like who you are, a little bit about your dealership, and then we can jump in. We're going to be talking about EV service today.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Okay. So my name is Chris. I'm the fixed operations director at Granbury Nissan in Granbury, Texas. Um, been in the industry since 2008. Um, so you know, going on 18 years now, everything from service porter all the way, you know, to a technician all the way up to, you know, now my my position now. I've managed, you know, a couple of stores. So I've kind of been around, but you know, I'm I'm settled, I've been settled with a Nissan manufacturer for the last few years. So it's where I'm at now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Awesome. So and Nissan was the first, you know, major automaker to go into EVs, and you've been doing service on Nissan since at least 2018. So I'd imagine you've seen you know the leaves and the few of the arias across multiple generations. So I guess for dealers who are years behind where you're at, like what are the one or two things you wish you would have known going into this, you know, and the into EV service with Nissan?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

The thing that I wish I would have been able to focus on in the beginning was educating customers on EV maintenance schedules, you know, um, you know, trying to help them understand that although it is an EV vehicle, there's still some responsibility of the maintenance behind it. It's not just get in and drive and plug in when you're done with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Well, so from the perspective of the dealership, though, and like the service department of dealership, because you know, a lot of the folks that that that listen to this or watch this podcast, you know, work in in the industry. Um, the conventional wisdom is well, like the impact of EVs on the service department is this like you zero out the the oil changes, like you don't get any more oil changes, but that's sort of like you know, mitigated by you're selling more tires. Like, you know, what's right and what's wrong about that, about that from a service perspective.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

There's a huge shop that's got bright red letters. I won't say their name, but they offer free tire rotations. And I think what ends up happening is I'm familiar with the thick about it. All right, we're going there. Okay. So I think what ends up happening is people will say, Well, I can just go get my tire rotations for free. If that's the only maintenance, you know, that I need, I'll just go and get those tire rotations and be done with it. And I think what ends up happening isn't that it's not that simple. In the event that they do get those tire rotations done at that place, you know, for free. What ends up happening is is again, you negate the rest of the vehicle. And it's bringing it to like Granberry Nissan, bringing it to us, it allows us to go through that vehicle while it's here. It's not just about, you know, a tire rotation. It's, you know, where where else on the vehicle are there any findings? Where else on the vehicle are there any things that need attention? You know, things of that sort. And we can't do that if, you know, they take their vehicle to a, you know, that the big red building um to get you know free tire rotations. And what ends up happening is is that that negligence that starts to happen that could have been caught previous to failure, but you know, saving a quick bug usually turns out to costing you more.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

I guess the other thing that I think is in the conventional wisdom is well, EVs go through tires faster than convention, you know, than the combustion engine cars, even if you're rotating them normally. Like I'm I'm curious. I mean, one thing that I I always like, you know, digging into this is you know, tire wear is a function of the vehicle's weight, uh, the torque, you know, how how fast you're accelerating and decelerating, and then the rubber compound. So, like, I guess, like, you know, Nissan Lease are not heavy cars, particularly. Um uh or the R. Do you see that that oh the yeah, the RA is not one of them, particularly heavy. Are they actually like, is it is it real that they're going through tires sort of like 20-30 percent faster than combustion engine uh vehicles?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I'm gonna say no. Those who have a gas engine are in the dealership more frequently than an EV owner, but because of that, again, it it goes back on to the the steadiness of getting a multi-point inspection done. It's are my ball joints getting weak that are causing excessive tire wear. Again, these services are getting neglected and it is causing more tires, it is causing additional tire wear. You know, we're not inspecting the steering gear links and things of that sort because we only see the tire or the vehicle two, you know, once maybe every two years. Because again, the the whole belief in it is I get in my car, I drive it, when it goes low, I charge it back up, and I'm done.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

And that's yeah, that okay. Yeah, there's something really interesting about this observation. It that that tires get the blame. Um, it's just like, well, EVs go through tires faster. Well, what you're actually saying is, you know, which I I really want to like understand and dig into the data is like it's actually that an EV owner is less likely to do the other things uh because they're just not you know, not thinking about maintenance as much. And that ends up like getting taken out of the tires, basically. Like that would be really interesting to kind of like see if that's really the case, you know. Um, I mean, I guess the one thing is like the way you could look at it is like for a leaf owner, just you know, since you know Nissan's for a leaf owner who is coming in and regularly, do their tires end up stretching longer than the the ones who don't?

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Correct, correct. It's 98 degrees outside right now. I think it feels like 105. Pavement's hot, there's potholes everywhere, you know. Um, so we are considered severe driving and it's due every you know 7,500, 10,000 miles. But again, if you're not getting those services done, when are you getting services done?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

You have this rare experience of like, you know, building out and scaling a service team that is working on more and more and more EVs. So I guess I'm curious of like how hiring and training is different now um for your service techs than it used to be when it was combustion engine cars.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

If it is, you know, if you can't understand them right off the bat, it's something that we're able to train you, you know, on. And through the manufacturer training, it's still something that they, you know, also require as well. Um, I know most new Nissan's dealership, our dealership is you know getting pressed or you know, was getting pressed by Nissan extremely to become EV, you know, certified, especially with the new rogues that are coming out. Now that that training is no longer an op or that that training is no longer a choice, it's a requirement now. If we want to be able to sell the new rogues, which is a very in-demand vehicle for Nissan, we have to have EV certifications for it. And so that training and ensuring that we have someone on the team that's always you know ev certified is very important.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah. I I was gonna ask, are you finding that everybody on your team is psyched to learn all this new stuff, or is it like a little bit of a mixed bag of like, uh, you know, I think it's I think it's a little bit of both.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

You know, some technicians may not feel comfortable working around that type of electricity and stuff like that. And then there's some dealers who are also you know pushing against it because in order to be EV certified, along with technical training, you also have to have the required tools. Okay. The required tools are thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

And you kind of have to have all that collectively in order to be considered, you know, certified to be able to work on them. And I think the problem is, is most people don't talk about that. I think having an EV certification, especially for a technician, is something to, you know, have some type of ravitas about because it's you're not just, yeah, I got this certification. It's I am able and equipped to do this specialized, you know, thing that not many people out there can do.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Yeah. Well on the tool side, I mean, on the tool side, like what what was the biggest ticket investment that you guys had to make at at Granberry for EV service, like tool-wise? Two two of them.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

The EV toolbox and a crate, a battery crate. It's it's just a wood pallet, there's no specialty to it, for me at least. I mean, I you know, it might be engineered to the fullest, you know, every little degree or pallet. Um, but that pallet was like $3,500, and all that is is to support a battery, to drop a battery out. Okay, you know, and so okay. Did you need special lifts as well? Or no? Yeah, you got you gotta have a you gotta have a specific kind of lift in order to drop that battery in and out. Um, not only a lift on the vehicle itself for what the vehicle sits on to lift up and down, but you also have to have a specific lift to lower and raise the battery in and out of the vehicle.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Uh interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

So you know, again, and then you know, there's a toolbox that's you know the size of you know my desk in my office, and it's filled with you know, EV equipment, you know, um discharging EV equipment, you know, specifically the batteries and things like that, and um, you know, memory memory, you know, type deals that that you know hold the memory while you remove the battery out on, you know, that way all the mapping and all the customer profiles and everything are still you know set up and all that. So it's interesting. It's not just a again, it's not just a hey, I went and got my my EV certification and I'm done. You know, especially for a dealer, that's only the start. That's like the bare minimum. Most of the time, they won't even allow you to buy the tools that are necessary to work on EVs until you have a technician that is EV certified. And then on top of that, yeah, you also have to have a salesperson that's EV certified. You have to have an advisor that's EV certified, then you get the technician that's EV certified, and then you get the oh, here are the requirements in order to be EV certified, here are the tool requirements to have that.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah. And what happens if like that one EV certified salesperson leaves the dealership? Like, then are you still allowed to work on the stuff? Oh or can you lose certification for the dealership?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

You can't sell them and you will lose certification for the dealership.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Wow. Yeah. I mean, that's gotta happen fairly often. I mean, there's a reasonable sort of normal turnover rate for a dealership. And if it's like you only have one certified tech or one certified advisor, then are you sort of dead in the water?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

That's that's why it's important for dealer operators to see past you know, those those type of problems. You know, if in order to be EV certified, you have to have you know at least one individual, you know, be you know, EV certified. I'm gonna make sure my entire team is. My goal is to push every technician to get EV certification. My goal is to push every advisor for EV certification, to push every salesperson for EV certification. You want to make sure that you cover, you know, cover your bases uh on that. But yes, it realistically, if our if if our technician decided to he wanted to retire tomorrow and he's the only EV certified tech, I'd be screwed.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Yeah, yeah. All right. Um, what about um now Nissan is more established from an EV perspective than than a lot of the other automakers, but like my first EV was a Volkswagen ID4. And over the first three years, I probably had four or five recalls on it. Um, so I was in the dealership quite a bit. Now, this was that was Volkswagen, it wasn't their first EV, but it was their first sort of high production one. Um, plus the scheduled maintenance intervals that I because I was following the rules, you know. Um, is that like is that recall work like actually attractive to not attractive? You don't want to be doing it, but like that's a revenue source as well for the dealership, right? It's just that the person paying for it is the OEM, not the customer, right? Yeah, is that sort of a reasonable line item for you guys?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Not necessarily. Um like the 2025 Aryas, there's not even a campaign issued on those.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

The 2024s have two, and to be fair, I had the first model year of the ID4. So like I basically like I was the one that was dealing with those bugs. So it this sounds like it just isn't as big of a question for for Nissan because it's more mature tech, basically.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

It has matured greatly. And because when I was um when I first started out at BMW, my my first experience with the all EV vehicle were the I eights and the I-3s. And man, I I thought they were cool cars, you know, but um I understand that, you know, talking with some of the technicians um at the store, it they were difficult to work on because the technology was new.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

One of the things that I think is different about EVs is the amount of technology and software just in the in the cabin, you know, sort of like that that the driver is interacting with. Um, you know, sometimes I feel like I just I need to call an IT support desk to just to get Bluetooth connectivity working to between my phone and the car. Do you do you think that there's like a service, and it's only getting more complicated, right? Like, do you feel like there is a service business model in that somewhere? Like doing like geek squad for cars, you know, that that you could sort of build a business around.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

The way that dealerships can obtain that level of customer satisfaction and retention on that is to have a specialist for EV vehicles to come in and say, you know, let me tell you everything about this. Now that you own it, we're going to go through the entire car. You're going to be a product guy just like I am. And yeah, giving the customer that sense of knowledge behind their own, you know, vehicle will help them in situations because a lot of times, too, is again, you're you're working out bugs. You know, it's it's no different than a car, whether it's an EV or not. You know, I'm I I drive a you know a company demo, and every once in a while that company demos the Bluetooth, I get in the card and my phone's not connected to the Bluetooth, you know. I and I have to go in kind of disconnected and reconnected and you know, things like that. And for me, it's something that I can look past because I'm in the industry, I understand these things. But to your average customer, to your average client, they're not, they may not be in the tech industry, they may not be in some type of, you know, um, they may not be in some type of digital age, you know, um industry. And to them, it's like I bought this car for this to work. And when it doesn't work, it just creates that, you know, that frustration. I think the biggest part of it is the introduction to the vehicle by during the sales process, ensuring that that customer knows as much as they can about the car as possible, but then also being able to offer that sense of level of of security, but the having a shop at you know, your your dealership to be able to bring the car into and say, hey, this isn't working, and us being able to fix it.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Yeah, I mean that I I think about like the my experience going into the Apple store, for instance, to get a to get you know my phone battery replaced or something like that, and or just need to buy something, you know, and the you know, they have the whole like genius bar and you set up a service appointment, and then somebody, you know, they they're just so quick, they're just like oh boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like that's all you need to do. And of course, I wasn't gonna figure that out, you know, or let alone my my 70-year-old parents aren't gonna like you know ever figure that out. But it's like that I feel like there's this like as cars get more like computers, that there's just something that's would be so valuable uh for the dealership to really establish themselves, yeah. This is the you can do a genius bar appointment, no problem. And then by the way, you know, whether it's to fix your Bluetooth or you know, or anything else, and and then by the way, that gets the person in the store, and it's like, hey, while you're here, do you want us to just like throw this on the lift really quick to see what's going on and just make sure everything's cool? And then you've got the opportunity to to do the you know the work or at least alert them, hey, did you know there's a little bit of the rake fluid thing, you know, um, that then you know it helps them maintain the car more like they should be, that they're maybe not thinking of it. But it's like, can you use the the genius bar to get them in there? Uh is is sort of the interesting thing I'm thinking about.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

One of the big things that that we actually started doing recently was we've hired someone that is a product specialist. Their their responsibility is not to sell the car, it's to teach the customer about the car. That's their sole job is to you know be the geek squad, be that, be that that bar where people can pull up to and say, Okay, Mr. Know It All. What do I need to know about my vehicle? And Mr. Know It All can say, actually, let me go through and through with you. I want when you leave here, I want you to know. But again, that's an opportunity that a lot of dealers.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Is that only for the leaf in the Aria? Or is that is that is that person, yeah, is that is that a product specialist for any particular kind of car?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

It's a product specialist for most of the vehicles. Like, you know, they have a you know common knowledge of all the vehicles, but we are pushing the product knowledge of you know the EV vehicles so that way they can offer a little bit more guidance on the ownership of this vehicle and what it entails. It's allowed the customers to gain confidence, it's allowed the customers to you know also come back because now they know, hey, these guys can offer the the knowledge that we need. If I'm ever in a pinch, I can call, you know, this guy and just talk to him over the phone. Hey, my car's doing this, my car's doing that. And without even bringing it in, they can you know get me fixed up. And during that time, oh, hey, by the way, I noticed, you know, I as long as you know, how's everything been going? By the way, that brake flush is due. It's coming up soon. It's gonna be doing about a thousand miles. You know, do you want to go ahead and put that on the books and get that scheduled?

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Yeah, yeah. That I mean, I I'm all for that if it's if my parents now don't call me to like sort out their IT problems with their car and they instead call this product specialist. Brilliant. I love it. Um, Chris, thank you for talking me through just like just maybe, you know, the under the hood uh different things beyond the surface level around you know, servicing EVs at at dealerships. So I appreciate your time. Of course. Thanks, God.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Thanks for joining this episode of EV Insider. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. And we will see you next time.