He owns a first-generation example of every hybrid vehicle ever offered for sale in North America.

That sextet of hybrids obviously includes a Honda Insight. That one he ordered in 1999, before anyone at his local dealership had even heard that Honda was making a gas-electric hybrid. It was the first Insight sold in Massachusetts.

By this time, Craig was really into Honda. He had already spent many years as a motorcycle enthusiast and mechanic, and several as a Honda dealership mechanic, and well and truly loved the Honda philosophy of making the world better through technology. At this time he was also a self-proclaimed “hippie,” sporting long hair, a full beard and a full slate of idealisms (vegetarianism, environmentalism, anti-consumerism, etc.)

“The Insight fit my political views, my religious views, my love of small cars, and my love of Honda,” recalls Craig. “It felt like Sochiro Honda came out the grave and said, ‘Build a car for Craig. He’s been such a fan of ours for so many years. You can sell it to other people, but it’s really Craig’s car.’”

When “Craig’s car” finally arrived at the dealership, he took the Insight to his recently opened service shop, and promptly starting taking the thing apart.

“You know that cover over the Insight’s battery pack which says, ‘If you take this off you will die’… well, that’s the first thing I took off.”

He wrote an article for a magazine about his experiences as a hybrid deconstructionist, and people soon came calling.

“I was probably the first guy in the world who did anything on hybrids on the independent (non-automaker) side. I became the expert. I wasn’t really an expert at the time, just smart enough to know that this was the future.”

Fast-forward to today and no one, including Craig, would question his credentials as “hybrid expert.” His current gig is president and owner of Automotive Career Development Center (ACDC) of Worcester, Massachusetts, a firm that trains and certifies technicians on everything hybrid (www.auto-careers.org).

He sometimes takes his classroom on the road. I caught up with him after such a session at the AutoMechanika Canada industry trade show, held recently in Mississauga, Ontario. He agreed to take as many questions as he could over lunch (vegetarian). Excepts of which follow:

WoW: What are some of the major misperceptions or myths people have about hybrids?

Van Battenburg:People believe that battery packs don’t last, and if you need to replace them outside of warranty, there are so expensive that it negates all the fuel savings of having a hybrid in the first place. The truth is that the battery packs in 1997 Prius models — the oldest hybrids on the road — are still in the cars. Battery packs are not failing in any large numbers, any more than any other major component. You build a million transmissions and ten will surely blow up too. Battery packs are solid and they work and they last.

WoW: But do the packs have a set life cycle? A set amount of recharge-discharge cycles they can sustain?

Van Batenburg: No. It’s an ongoing experiment. These are Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, which used to be the type in cell phones, when cell phones were big as bricks. In those cell phones you would charge it right up to the top, then talk until it went dead; you cycled from zero to 100 per cent charge all the time. They got too hot. Had no fans. Lasted about six months. So people were asking, “If these batteries can’t last one year in a phone, how are they going to last 15 in car?” A reasonable question, if you don’t understand the technology of a hybrid vehicle.

All hybrids use on-board air conditioning to cool the battery pack… the batteries never get hot. Battery packs are like vegetables; put them in crisper they’re happy, leave them on a counter, they get cranky.

The other factor in making a battery pack last is not to cycle it from 0 to 100 per cent that often. The software will not let the battery go down much below 40 per cent of charge, and never much over 70 per cent charge. There’s a sweet spot that they cycle in that will get you thousands and thousands of cycles, before the battery chemically wears out. It will wear out eventually, but we don’t know when — we haven’t worn any out yet. Some have obviously malfunctioned, but none have actually worn out. It’s an experiment. They’re lasting longer than anyone thought they would.

WoW: What do you say to people who think hybrids are fragile?

Van Batenburg: I think what’s going on here is an aversion to computers. It’s more psychological than hard fact. The average consumer feels so out of control of their life, they’re reluctant to give up even more control in their cars. In a hybrid, the computer is stopping your car, shifting your car, turning it on and off for you, turning your A/C on — it does everything but steer the car and it helps you steer the car too. That’s hard to swallow. For people who don’t like computers, they sure are not going to like hybrids

WoW: What should you know about maintaining a hybrid?

Van Batenburg: Two things, essentially. Hybrids have two radiators: one for cooling the engine; one for cooling the inverter (which changes AC current to DC current). So you need to flush and replace coolant on both these radiators, at the prescribed intervals.

The other main difference between hybrids and other cars is that hybrids rarely use their hydraulic-friction brakes. Almost all braking is done by the water-cooled, brushless, electric motors (a.k.a. regenerative braking). In the Prius, for example, the hydraulic brakes only come on below 4 mph or less, or during an ABS event. So the brakes actually develop atrophy from non-use, especially in a corrosive environment, which is most of North America. Consequently, once a year the entire brake system (pads, calipers, rotors) needs to be inspected, cleaned and lubricated so it doesn’t stop working.

WoW: In your seminar you cautioned techs to be mindful of using CVT-specific transmission fluid, especially in Hondas…

Van Batenburg: Yes, and except for engine oil, use only manufacturer fluids in hybrids. Use their CVT fluids and their long-life coolant in the inverter radiators — don’t put yourself in a warranty dispute.

Honda’s CVT design is very different than the (planetary gear-set design) CVTs employed in Ford, Toyota-Lexus and Nissan hybrids. The fluid that Honda wants in its CVT is designed to work with that particular clutch (an electro/hydraulically controlled start clutch, which engages or disengages the transmission when accelerating, braking or idling). It needs that fluid and no one else’s. And like I said in the seminar, the other CVTs can tolerate some contamination in the tranny fluid, but the Honda’s won’t — it will hand grenade on you. You need to use genuine Honda CVT fluid, a clean funnel, and to clean all the dirt around the fill area. You need to work on this like you’re doing brain surgery on your best friend.

WoW: How often should you change CVT fluid and inverter radiator coolant?

Van Batenburg: Well, always follow the manufacturer recommendations. I noticed the recommendations are moving around a bit. In the beginning they didn’t recommend flushing the inverter rad at all. Now they went to 100,000 miles for the first flush, and 50,000 miles for subsequent ones.

Ford says you don’t need to change their tranny fluid — that it’s a lifetime fluid. I beg to differ. I would change it every 30,000 miles. It’s a cheap and easy thing to do, and those transmissions are extremely expensive to replace.

WoW: Any other advice for long-term hybrid wnership?

Van Batenburg: When it comes time to replace tires, stick with factory-spec tires. Those tires were specified to be part of the fuel-efficiency package, and you won’t get all the fuel efficiency you paid a premium for with your hybrid if you go to “normal” tires.

WoW: One of your missions is to provide hybrid owners with an alternative to dealership-only service…

Van Batenburg: It’s not just me out there. There are others providing training for hybrids, I just happen to be probably the most well known. You don’t have to go to dealership for hybrid service. We’re setting up a network of qualified shops. I train the techs, for four days, at our facility in Massachusetts. The written test must be passed at 80 per cent. There are other criteria as well. For instance, they must have an inter-Provincial license and have a good standing in the community. And we only qualify them one year, not forever, because the technology changes too rapidly. For the list of such qualified shops in Canada you can check out a link on my website (www.auto-careers.org).

WoW: You’ve also made it your mission to help Canadian independent garages get access to the factory scan tools that are necessary to work on hybrids…

Van Battenburg: Not just to work on hybrids, but also to work on all cars, you need a factory scan tool, with factory information. In the U.S. it’s mandatory that it has to be available — not for free — but available. You have problems with your rules up here. In Canada, the automakers do not need to share information or equipment to the independent market. So in Canada, the dealerships own the hybrid business. I provide Canadian techs with scan tools. I don’t give it to them, I loan it to them. For the qualified shops, I will ship to Canada whatever information or tools they need. When they’re done, they ship everything back. In this way they can get into the hybrid business in Canada. Hopefully the rules will change, because I don’t like shipping all this stuff around. But right now it’s part of helping the cause…

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Some of Craig’s Hybrid Tips for Technicians