The first hybrid drive system was shown as long ago as 1900 at the World Exhibition in Paris. However, back then this development by Ferdinand Porsche did not manage to prevail over the internal combustion engine. For decades, this technology virtually disappeared off the radar until Toyota brought the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle drive onto the market in 1997. Now even Formula 1 is embracing hybrid drives. In the foreseeable future, "Racing Green" will be affordable and practical for everyone. High time to prepare trainees and apprentices for hybrid technology with a practice-oriented training system.

That is why Lucas-Nulle has developed a new course-I UniTrain which introduces trainees to the most common hybrid drives. The course content was

agreed upon with the involvement of the Akademie des deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes (TAK) - Academy of the German Motor Trade - and the Zentralverband des deutschen Kraftfahrzeuggewerbes (ZDK) - Central Association of German Motor Trade. ZDK and TAK were particularly instrumental in designing the content relating to health and safety and "inherently safe vehicles."

"TAK ZDK and will use the new advanced course in their electrical training courses for specialists in the motor trade. The number of vehicles with hybrid drive systems is constantly growing. The demand for specialists with a thorough knowledge of hybrid drives in motor vehicles is therefore also growing, "explains Siegfried Schulz, Product Manager for Automotive Technology at Lucas-Nulle.

Hybrid technology - working on a high voltage vehicle:

The core part of the course features the hybrid drive technology typically found in a hybrid drive vehicle - a combination of electric motor and combustion engine. Through practical exercises and clear animations, the trainees get to know the performance characteristics of a modern high voltage vehicle. The manner of operation of the battery, different drive configurations, hybrid and purely electric driving as well as regenerative Braking are only a few of the topics covered. The curriculum, including topics such as the inverter and various three-phase motors, is worked through on the basis of didactic principles and explained to the students in comprehensible lesson units. Each section consists of practical and theoretical parts, which are reinforced through experiments on the connected hardware.

The hybrid course provides insight into the technology that the trainees do not even get in their practical day-to-day working lives.

"With our UniTrain-I course, the trainees can perform tests and measurements that are not even possible in practice due to safety reasons. This is because the workshop in the high voltage is "switched off" before a technician works on the vehicle, "explains Schulz.