Hack the Prius! Plug-in mod.

[moondawg]

Hack the Prius

This seemed more appropriate than the Fuel Economy or Biodiesel forums... I hope it gets some viewing after all the clamoring for plug-in hybrids.

Discuss.

moondawg

 

[TNT03]

I read about this in the NY Times recently. I find it interesting (hypocritical?) that the Toyota people don't like it. Certainly with oil heading (theoretically) for $100 / barrel, a lot of different options need to be explored.

And fast!

 

[Kiwi_ME]

So all they have done is convert the Prius to run also as an electric car with an on-board charger. Other than the additional battery capacity in a suitable form and some programming, I guess all the parts are already there.

Aside than the exposure of Toyota to liability when people get injured from poorly-engineered hacks, it seems there is nothing wrong with the idea other than the same problem of finding convenient charging points. The question is whether it produces better utilization of energy resources or just lower running costs, offset of course by the additional weight and lesser cargo utility. The numbers given seem to be biased in favor of this mod.

Certainly a "hybrid" car does not require a large battery capacity to be effective in the original intention of improving the overall efficiency of an IC engine, nor does it (in principle) even require the use of electricity as the hybrid medium.

Funny thing, it's a bit like overclocking an Intel CPU, soon Toyota will need to program the Prius computer to detect if a larger battery has been installed and then refuse to run.

 

[compu_85]

Funny thing, it's a bit like overclocking an Intel CPU, soon Toyota will need to program the Prius computer to detect if a larger battery has been installed and then refuse to run.

LAMO!!! HAHA!
Next thing you know thry'll be puttin in 16 V batteries to make the moter have more juice! LOL!

-J

 

[Kiwi_ME]

The silly thing is that for their test vehicle they have taken a perfectly good car that has been meticulously engineered and optimized at great expense, and then dumped in 300 lbs of lead-acid batteries to get only 10 miles of battery-only operation at under 35 mph.

Now the driver not only has to park at a charging point to save what amounts to 33-cents, but suffer the subsequent loss in cargo capacity and the potential of injury due to carrying additional battery weight the car was not designed to hold.

This idea might be the wave of the future but judging by the MPG claims this test implementation shows a lot more effort from marketing rather than engineering.

The biggest issue buyers have with buying hybrids is the potential cost of a battery replacement so what's the point in adding more for such a relatively small savings?

By the way here is a very, very cool Prius simulator. Click "drive mode," place gearshift into "D" and operate the accelerator. Note how the small motor/gen effects a full range of gear ratios between the engine and wheels including starting and reverse. Electrical power goes back and forth between the two motor/gens and sometimes to and from the battery to ensure the engine is used optimally at all times.

 

[spinfire]

Cute simulator. I wonder how accurate it is?

I was able to deplete the battery doing some heavy acceleration, causing the "turtle" logo to appear.

After this is wouldn't go over 80 for quite some time

With the accelerator maxed and engine at 4000 it could maintain speed. Eventually the speed could increase but not by much.. it would return to low battery mode.

OK, So perhaps it wasn't meant to be driven that way.. I got 20MPG average

It would be awesome in cities, but I think the TDI is nicer on the freeway.

 

[MrMopar]

Aside than the exposure of Toyota to liability when people get injured from poorly-engineered hacks, it seems there is nothing wrong with the idea other than the same problem of finding convenient charging points.

Toyota warranties the battery. They have engineered the charge/discharge cycle to maximize the lifespan of the battery pack. When people go hacking their car to convert it into something it wasn't supposed to be from the start, that creates a problem for Toyota if this charge/discharge cycle degrades the lifespan of the battery pack.

If I ran a company that had a lot of money to loose is cases such as this, I wouldn't want people going and doing their own mods that have a direct impact of my bottom line warranty costs. The spin from this is if Toyota were to deny a warranty claim on the basis that someone tweaked their Prius in such a manner, they would catch bad press for being the auto maker that didn't stand behind their product or whatever else anyone cares to say about that. For these reasons, Toyota has good reason to not want people making mods like this to a highly tuned product.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

However, the idea I was refering to is the general concept of a plug-in hybrid, not that of modifying a Toyota in a particular way.

My understanding after reading the docs is that had actually replaced the battery pack with a lead-acid pack, and not modify or even use the original.