Toronto, Ontario – The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) has recently announced new certification tests for electric and high-voltage vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
According to Trish Serratore, senior vice president of communications, the ADAS Specialist Certifications Test L4 requires completion of either the A6 Electrical and Electronic Systems, or the B5 Mechanical and Electrical Components training.
The need for this certification test came from ASE asking its members what their needs were in the ADAS world.
“They came back to us and said, ‘We need to know that our technicians understand these systems and the steps needed to service, repair, and maintain them properly,’” says Serratore.
The certification test covers diagnostic and calibration issues and is available on the ASE website for technicians with three years of experience.
“We wanted to have a degree of experience behind this test,” explains Serratore about the three-year experience requirement.
The EV and high-voltage certification test was born out of a similar need as the ADAS test with the ASE asking the industry what it needed.
The ASE’s new xEV High-Voltage Electrical Safety Standards cover “protection and safety.”
There are two certification tests involved: the xEV Electrical Safety Awareness Certification (Level 1) and the xEV Technician Electrical Safety Certification (Level 2).
The first level test is “for everyone who is in the shop where the vehicles are getting serviced,” including service consultants and others, says Serratore.
“This test is very broad and basic because it’s designed to help everyone understand what the issues are regarding safety with high-voltage vehicles or EVs.”
The second level test targets technicians and deals specifically with the safety aspects of servicing EVs.
These skills are more complex, according to Serratore, and include de-energizing high-voltage systems, components and more.
“Down the road, we want to have a certification test that deals with the specifics in batteries – repairing, replacing and removing,” she continues.
This test is also available now on the ASE website.
“We understood we couldn’t take everybody out of the shop and send them over to a test center,” says Serratore.
“It wouldn’t be viable since we want everyone to have those certifications. So, we have an online platform that allows us to have these tests taken on laptops or work computers.”
Serratore says ASE’s goal is to “protect service providers and everyone that comes into the shop.”
She says the feedback on the certification tests has been “great” and ASE is hoping to continue getting the word out about them.
