Tire Discounters Inc., one of the country’s largest tire dealerships, has opened a concept store that offers a full range of electric and hybrid vehicle services.
The outlet – officially called TD/EV by Tire Discounters – is located in the Cincinnati, Ohio, suburb of Symmes Township and was created to fill what the dealership considers to be a “void” in the automotive aftermarket.
“We noticed a lot of uncertainty in tire dealers and repair shops on how to work on high-voltage systems,” says Jamie Ward, president and CEO of Tire Discounters. And many customers “are unaware of the amount of routine maintenance that these vehicles require.”
The TD/EV store is equipped with the latest tools and technologies to work “on all facets of the modern EV,” according to Tire Discounters officials.
“We’re talking high-voltage vehicles that are coming in with all the new bells and whistles, all new technologies,” says Ward. “We have a battery room where we can do full diagnostic analysis of all (battery) modules and cells. We do services like load balancing. We do battery repair and replacement. We’re fully trained to get into and work on every single piece of an EV, whether it’s a Tesla, Rivian” or another EV or hybrid.
“You name it, we have the capabilities.”
The store’s battery room - which Tire Discounters employees call “Electric Avenue, just like the song,” Ward notes – features an explosion-proof barrier.
“We keep (the room) very separated from the rest of the shop. You can’t even get into the room unless there are two, Level Two ASE-certified techs with you at the same time. We want to protect our employees. Some of these batteries are 500 to 1,000 volts. A human being will be paralyzed by 30 volts. Sixty volts will kill you. So imagine the level of training and the safety protocols we’ve put in place.
“When we looked at getting into this, we knew there was a high barrier of entry,” says Ward. “We had to figure out how we could train our guys. When ASE introduced their certifications for EVs, we were already moving forward with a select group from our team, working on EV training” with various vendors.
The TD/EV store also offers ADAS recalibrations “and highly sophisticated alignments.”
And the outlet performs maintenance on other EV and hybrid components and systems.
“When Tesla rolled out, Elon Musk told everybody there’s no maintenance required,” says Ward. “That’s a total myth. These vehicles have a cooling system similar to an internal combustion engine with a series of hoses and fittings that are rubber and plastic and over time, will break and crack and need to be replaced. The fluid itself does not last forever. There will be leaks that happen. The shocks and struts are pretty similar to the shocks and struts on everyday vehicles. Tie rods, ball joints, bushings – all of those components typically have a rubber failure point and those failure points (also) are on electric vehicles. Newer-tech vehicles require a lot of the same maintenance that older-tech vehicles require.”
The new TD/EV store carries EV-specific tires, according to Ward. “We stock the major name brands for downstream options for Teslas, Rivians” and other EVs.
“We keep a core group of products in-house that are EV-specific,” but the store’s tire selection “isn’t limited to that. A lot of hybrids are coming in with tires that have been replaced once or twice with aftermarket products. A lot aren’t EV-specific. So we need to have a full depth and breadth of inventory available to us.”
Ward says Tire Discounters has no plans to open more TD/EV outlets at the moment. “We’re using this as our central source for learnings to establish workflows and to build processes” for EV and hybrid service.
“Before we expand, we’re going to make sure that this facility has done what its original purpose was and that’s to educate and train our employees. We have three to five EVs or hybrids of some sort in every single one of our stores, every day.”
Tire Discounters has more than 200 locations, making it one of the 10 largest independent tire dealerships in the U.S., according to the 2024 MTD 100.
