--- title: "How Electric Delivery Van Repair Differs From Diesel" description: "The battery pack under the floor is structural, which reorganises lifting points, welding, bake cycles and how rocker damage gets assessed on a delivery van." focus_keyword: "how electric delivery van repair differs from a diesel van" canonical: https://ocrv.me/blog/what-two-years-of-electric-delivery-vans-taught-the-body-shop/ kind: blogPost updated: 2026-07-29 source: OCRV Center --- # What Two Years of Electric Delivery Vans Taught the Body Shop > The pack sits under the floor and carries load, so **rocker and floor damage becomes a pack question**. Bake temperature, lifting points and welding all change with **a high voltage system fitted**. ## How does repairing an electric delivery van differ from a diesel one? The high voltage pack under the floor is often structural, which changes lifting points, welding restrictions, bake temperatures and how lower body damage is assessed. Fleets running Rancho Santa Margarita routes bring these to our Yorba Linda shop, and the sequence is different from the first hour. - Lower body damage requires a pack adjacency assessment - De energizing follows a documented procedure with a waiting period - Paint bake cycles may need a reduced temperature schedule - Some body panels are replaced rather than repaired by design ### Key facts | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Structural consequence | Pack forms part of the floor structure on many platforms | | Body and paint labor | $210 per hour | | Diagnostic rate | $285 per hour (One hour minimum, credited to an authorized repair) | | Common downtime driver | Parts availability on newer platforms | | All work performed | In shop at Yorba Linda | The first electric delivery van we took in looked like a straightforward job: a curb strike had taken out a lower body panel and scuffed the rocker area. On a diesel van of similar size that is a day and a half. It took considerably longer, and everything that made it longer was a consequence of what sits underneath the load floor. Two years and a number of these later, the differences have settled into a pattern worth writing down. None of them are exotic and none of them make the vehicles difficult to repair. What they do is reorder the job, and a shop that treats one of these like a conventional van finds out about the reordering at the wrong moment. ## The pack is under the floor and it carries load On most current electric delivery platforms the high voltage battery is a large flat assembly mounted between the frame rails or integrated into the floor structure, and on many of them the pack case itself contributes stiffness to the vehicle. That is a sound engineering choice and it has an immediate consequence for collision work: damage to the rocker area, the lower body sides or the floor is potentially damage to a structural member that happens to contain a large amount of stored energy. So the assessment question changes. On a diesel van, a scuffed rocker is a cosmetic question and a dented rocker is a sheet metal question. On these platforms it is neither until somebody has established the pack's condition and its relationship to the damaged area, following the manufacturer's own inspection procedure. That step comes first and it is not something a body technician can determine visually. ## De energizing, which is a procedure and not a switch Every manufacturer publishes a documented shutdown procedure for its high voltage system, and every one of them involves a service disconnect, personal protective equipment, and a waiting period after disconnection for capacitors in the drive electronics to discharge. That waiting period is not advisory. It is the reason the procedure exists in the order it does. The practical consequence for a fleet is scheduling. A vehicle cannot be de energized, worked, re energized and tested casually through the day. It happens once at the start of the work and once at the end, which means the work in between has to be planned as a block rather than fitted in around other jobs. On a mixed fleet that changes how a shop sequences a week. - Documented service disconnect procedure, per platform - Personal protective equipment and a qualified person - A waiting period for drive electronics to discharge - Work planned as one continuous block rather than in fragments ## Welding and heat, which are the two real constraints Welding near a pack is restricted, and the restriction is stated in distance terms in the platform documentation. Where a repair falls inside that distance the pack comes out, which is a substantial operation involving lifting equipment, and it is why a lower body repair on one of these vehicles is not comparable in hours to the same damage on a conventional van. Heat is the second constraint. A conventional bake cycle in a paint booth reaches temperatures that battery manufacturers do not want their packs held at. The answer is either a reduced temperature schedule with a longer dwell, or removal of the pack before the vehicle goes in. Which one applies is a platform specific question, and it affects both the schedule and the choice of clear, because a low bake schedule is not identical in outcome to a standard one. ## Lifting points, which are fewer than you expect The area under the floor that a technician would normally reach for with a lift arm or a jack is now occupied. Manufacturers designate specific lifting and support points, usually on the frame rails or on dedicated pads, and using anything else risks the pack case. A dented pack case is not a cosmetic issue and it is not repairable in a body shop. That sounds obvious written down and it is the mistake most likely to happen in a busy shop where somebody moves a vehicle without reading anything. We mark the designated points with removable tape on arrival on every one of these vehicles, which takes two minutes and removes an expensive category of accident entirely. > **note:** Mark the designated lifting points with tape when the vehicle arrives. It is two minutes of work and it addresses the failure mode that comes from somebody moving a vehicle in a hurry. ## Panels, finishes and cross contamination Several of these platforms use composite body panels rather than steel, and on some of them the panels are designed as replacement items rather than repairable ones. That is not a shortcoming, it is a manufacturing choice that trades repairability for weight and corrosion resistance. What it means for an estimate is that a dent which would be pulled and filled on a steel panel becomes a parts line instead. Composite and aluminium alongside steel also means separate tooling and separate work areas. Steel dust embedded in an aluminium or composite panel causes corrosion and finish defects, so abrasives, files and even the sanding area have to be kept apart. Any shop working across mixed substrates has to solve that, and solving it is a facility decision rather than a technique. ## What fleets should plan for Longer calendar time on lower body damage, and it is not a labor rate question. It is pack assessment, procedure blocks, occasional pack removal and parts availability on platforms that have not been in the field long enough to have a deep aftermarket. A minor rocker strike that is three days on a diesel van can be a week and a half on one of these. The practical mitigations are the boring ones. Report lower body contact immediately rather than at the next service, because pack adjacency assessment on fresh damage is simpler than on damage that has been driven for a month. Keep the platform documentation accessible to whoever authorises repairs. And accept that a spare unit in the rotation is worth more on an electric fleet than it was on a diesel one. ## Questions and answers ### Why is rocker damage on an electric van not a cosmetic question? Because the battery pack under the floor often contributes structural stiffness and sits close to that area. Damage there is potentially damage to a structural member containing stored energy, so the manufacturer's pack inspection procedure comes before any body assessment. A technician cannot determine it visually. ### Why does de energizing a high voltage system involve a waiting period? Because capacitors in the drive electronics hold charge after the service disconnect is opened. The published waiting period exists so that stored energy dissipates before anybody works nearby. It is part of the procedure rather than a suggestion, and it is why the work has to be planned as a continuous block. ### Can an electric van go through a normal paint bake cycle? Not always. Standard bake temperatures exceed what battery manufacturers want their packs held at, so the options are a reduced temperature schedule with longer dwell or removing the pack first. Which applies is platform specific, and a low bake schedule affects clearcoat selection as well as the calendar. ### Why are lifting points restricted on an electric delivery van? Because the underfloor area a technician would normally use is occupied by the pack. Manufacturers designate specific points on the rails or dedicated pads, and lifting elsewhere risks denting the pack case, which is not repairable in a body shop. Marking the points with tape on arrival prevents the mistake. ### Are composite van body panels repaired or replaced? On several platforms they are designed as replacement items, which turns a dent that would be pulled and filled on steel into a parts line. Mixed substrates also require separate abrasives and work areas, because steel dust embedded in composite or aluminium causes corrosion and finish defects later. --- Source: [OCRV Center](https://ocrv.me/blog/what-two-years-of-electric-delivery-vans-taught-the-body-shop/). Last verified 2026-07-29.