• Carts & Coffee, Wed Nov 18 2026, 9-10 AM Pacific, EV West x EV-LC.org. We will break it on purpose, then diagnose it live.

    Carts & Coffee Returns November 18: We’ll Break It On Purpose

    October 15, 2026 al night Uncategorized
    Carts & Coffee, Wed Nov 18 2026, 9-10 AM Pacific, EV West x EV-LC.org. We will break it on purpose, then diagnose it live.

    Your students are going to work on electric vehicles. The question is whether they learn on one first.

    Carts & Coffee is back for a second session on Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 9 to 10 AM Pacific. It is free, it is one hour, and it is built around the EV Trainer Cart: a complete, running AC drivetrain on an open frame.

    We start it. We break something on purpose. Then we diagnose it live, the same way your students will. Real motor, real inverter, real pack, real fault. Nothing simulated and nothing on a slide.

    Why an open frame

    Most EV training equipment is a screen with a diagram on it. The EV Trainer Cart is the opposite. Motor, inverter, DC-DC converter, onboard charger, BMS, and a real battery pack, all mounted where a student can see them and trace a high-voltage cable from one to the next with a finger instead of a callout arrow.

    These are the same components that go into the conversions EV West builds. They are not teaching mockups.

    Fault injection is the point

    A running system teaches a student what normal looks like. A broken one teaches them everything else.

    The cart has built-in diagnostic ports and a set of sample faults. The instructor injects one, the student tracks it down. No answer key, and no waiting for a car to fail on its own halfway through a semester. We run this live at the fifteen-minute mark.

    It plugs into a wall outlet

    No lift. No dedicated high-voltage room. No electrical service upgrade and no facilities request that dies in a queue for two budget cycles. The cart runs off a standard 110V outlet, rolls on casters between classrooms, and stores against a wall.

    If your shop has an outlet and a floor, you can run it.

    What comes with it

    A full curriculum and instructor training ship with the cart. Lesson structure, the fault sequence, what to demonstrate in what order, and how to assess it. It was written by Mark Weller, who taught college automotive for twenty years before he built this thing, so it is written from the teaching side rather than from a product manual.

    The cart is $32,995 fully assembled and running. One cart, one drivetrain, and you choose which: a NetGain Hyper 9 or a Tesla drive unit. The frame, the curriculum, and the diagnostic workflow are identical either way.

    If you cannot get to San Marcos

    The full session streams live: the cart, the fault injection, the diagnosis, the curriculum walkthrough, and the Q&A. Register the same way and the stream link goes out the day before.

    At 9:00 AM Pacific it is noon on the East Coast, so most instructors can watch this over lunch without leaving campus.

    Reserve your seat
    Wed  Nov 18  2026  ·  9–10 AM PT
    WHERE  EV West, 1788 La Costa Meadows Dr #100, San Marcos CA COST  Free
    WHO IT’S FOR  Auto tech instructors, CTE directors CAN’T TRAVEL  Full livestream

    Building a budget request? Email sales@evwest.com with the subject “EV Trainer – [your school]” and include your program size, funding source, and target semester, and we will format the quote for your purchasing office.

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  • Last Chance to Register for Carts and Coffee In Person

    May 12, 2026 al night ev trainer at school

    Tomorrow is the last day to register for in-person attendance at Carts and Coffee.

    In-person seats are limited. If you want to be in the room for the EV Trainer Cart demo and the open house on May 13, register today.

    Register now — last chance →
    Wednesday, May 13 · 9 AM – 12 PM · EV West, San Marcos CA

    Can’t make the drive? The full event streams live on Zoom, free and open to instructors anywhere in the country: zoom.us/j/99003895956

    Both options are free. The livestream is available through tomorrow morning as well.

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  • Four Days Out — What to Expect at Carts and Coffee

    May 9, 2026 al night ev trainer at school

    May 13 is four days away. Here’s what the morning looks like.

    Doors open at 9:00 AM at EV West, 1788 La Costa Meadows Dr #102, San Marcos, CA 92078. Coffee is on us. The first hour is informal — walk the shop, meet the team, ask early questions.

    At 10:00 AM we move into the presentation. We’ll cover the EV Trainer Cart from the ground up: specs, curriculum applications, setup, and cost. Ron Grosinger from Mr. G’s Workshop will be part of the conversation.

    At 11:30 AM the floor opens. Hands-on time with the cart, open Q&A, and time to talk one-on-one with the EV West and EV-LC.org teams about your program specifically.

    The livestream runs the full event. If you registered for the online session, you’ll get the Zoom link by email on May 12.

    In-person spots are still open but limited. Register today.

    Register here

    Parking is free. The facility is on La Costa Meadows Drive — easy to find.

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  • What the EV Trainer Cart Actually Does (And Why Programs Are Asking About It)

    April 26, 2026 al night ev trainer at school

    Most automotive programs run into the same wall: you want to teach EV drivetrain, but a donor vehicle is expensive, unpredictable, and hard to work around safely in a classroom.

    The EV Trainer Cart is a different approach. It’s a fully assembled, running AC drivetrain on an open frame — motor, controller, battery pack, throttle, display. Students can see every component, trace every connection, and interact with a live system without the constraints of a vehicle body.

    It ships assembled and running. No donor car sourcing, no teardown, no waiting.

    The cart uses the same AC50 or Hyper9 motor that EV West uses in real conversions. When a student works on it, they’re working on the actual hardware they’ll encounter in the field.

    What it covers in a curriculum

    • AC motor operation and control
    • Battery management and BMS integration
    • Throttle mapping and controller programming
    • Regenerative braking basics
    • Real-time data via display

    It fits on a standard shop floor. One unit can support multiple lab rotations. And because it’s purpose-built for education, there’s no guesswork about what’s safe to touch.

    We’ll have it running live at Carts and Coffee on May 13 — co-hosted with EV-LC.org. Register to see it in person or join the livestream from anywhere.

    Register — free

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  • We’re Hosting a Free EV Education Event on May 13

    April 23, 2026 al night ev trainer at school

    If you teach automotive technology — or run a CTE program — this one is for you.

    On May 13, EV West and EV-LC.org are co-hosting Carts and Coffee at our San Marcos facility. It’s a free, three-hour event built around the EV Trainer Cart and the question we hear from instructors most often: how do I start teaching EV drivetrain in my program without buying a whole vehicle?

    The morning runs like this:

    • 9:00 AM — Coffee, introductions, walk the shop floor
    • 10:00 AM — Presentation and live demo of the EV Trainer Cart
    • 11:30 AM — Open house, hands-on time, questions

    Ron Grosinger from Mr. G’s Workshop will be joining us. If you know his channel, you know his style — no fluff, real shop talk, built for educators.

    Can’t make it to San Diego? We’re running a full livestream so instructors anywhere in the country can attend.

    It’s free. Registration takes two minutes.

    Register here

    The in-person session has limited spots. If you’re local to San Diego County, register now.

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  • One Week Out — Carts and Coffee Is May 13

    April 6, 2026 al night ev trainer at school

    One week from today the EV Trainer Cart will be running live at EV West in San Marcos — the full AC drivetrain on an open frame that instructors and their students can get hands on.

    In-person seats are limited and going fast. If you’ve been on the fence, this is the week to decide.

    What’s Happening

    Wednesday, May 13, 2026 · 9 AM – 12 PM
    EV West · 1788 La Costa Meadows Dr #102, San Marcos, CA 92078

    Three hours of real EV drivetrain education, free for automotive technology instructors and CTE program directors. In person or on the national livestream.

    Schedule

    9:00 AM – 12:00 PM — Doors open. Coffee is on us.
    Can’t make it in person? Join the free national livestream: zoom.us/j/99003895956

    9:30 AM — Live demo: EV Trainer Cart running under load. See the full drivetrain — motor, controller, BMS, display — assembled on an open frame your students can work around safely.

    10:30 AM — Presentation: Ron Grosinger of Mr. G’s Workshop on building EV into the automotive curriculum.

    11:30 AM — Open house. Ask questions, get hands on the equipment, talk to the team.

    Space is limited for in-person. Register here.

    Read more