Archives

Toyota Prius owners can double their mileage by ordering a kit that converts their vehicle into a plug-in hybrid. (http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1838193,00.html?imw=Y)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/PHEV_Prius.jpgAnita Hamiliton - Time - Sept 3, 2008

The future is now - Ed

Chris Cox of Derry, N.H., got tired of waiting for the electric car of the future. In August, he took matters into his own hands and had his 2008 Toyota Prius converted into a plug-in hybrid, which doubled its gas mileage — Cox now gets up to 100 miles per gallon for 30 to 40 miles at a stretch. Although the Prius is already a hybrid gas-electric model, the additional battery that Cox had installed enables him to travel more than 20 miles on all-electric power (compared to just two miles without it) before the gas engine kicks in… http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1838193,00.html?imw=Y

hmm it can drive 20 miles on all electric. if cox can make the battery a bit bigger to travel 30 - 40 miles, i guess the volt will be a disaster.

i'm really betting on the volt to be 20 - 30 miles gas free, and over 50k after everything is said and done

good grief at $30,000 dollars your could drive a Prius 377,142 miles with gas at $3.50 and 44 mpg. If you hypermiled it would be even further.
On the low end at $10,000 you could drive 125,714 miles

Hi all--

Jay Groh (TheForce) had the Hymotion PHEV kit installed in his Prius and will be making a demonstration of it at the upcoming MPGfest. It'll be in Cincinnati on the 12th of October. From what I've heard he's getting over 200 MPG on his commute.

once the price drops to $5,000...............50,000 Priuii will be converted annually..........and after a couple of years of that.......Toyota will offer it as an $2,500 option.


2012 will be a great time to buy another car

good grief at $30,000 dollars your could drive a Prius 377,142 miles with gas at $3.50 and 44 mpg. If you hypermiled it would be even further.
On the low end at $10,000 you could drive 125,714 miles

Hi xmr,

Did that result seem just a little too exagerated to be true? You forgot the cost of the car in your evaluation. Am I missing something? You have the 125,714 miles in there, which is the miles the car will go without the pack. Where do you get the $30K ? I am confused by your statements.

Ok, Cox paid $10K for the 20 mile Hymotion conversion. So your assuming the car is $20K. Lets see, taking $20K from your $30 K worth of gas and and you get 125714 miles worth of $3.50/ga gas at 44 mpg. You see, to get 44 mpg out of a Prius, us still have to buy the Prius. Its not free.

Lets do a quicky comparison. New Prius, and Hymotion 20 mile pack - $30 K you say. The pack lasts 125K miles, guestimate. He drives the car for 125K miles and gets 100 mpg. That is 1250 gallons of gas. An unmodified Prius drives for 125K miles at 44 mpg and that is 2841 gallons of gas. The difference is 1591 gallons of gas. Or about $6000. So, like Cox said, not ready for prime time. He is going to loose about $4000 unless the battery lasts longer.

Now, all one has to do to make this worth while is buy the 20 mile pack, and drive round trip to work less than 15 miles (to avoid stressing the pack). Then one can drive 125K miles on the cost of electricty, which is about 1/6 th that of gas (2841/6 = $473.15). The cost of the unmodified Prius gas is 2841 *$4.00/ga , or $11364. Subracting out the EV energy usage, and the pack needs to be less than $10891 to break even in 125 K miles of pure EV service.

So, it looks like for Pure EV, prime time is here. But the only problem with this, is that 125K miles, 15 miles/day for work (50 times 5 trips a year) is 33 years. And the car rusting and shelf life battery problems will get you first. So, again, not ready for prime time. But real neat anyway.

Seems to me they need to get this pack down to $5K for it to be a slam dunk money saver.

Your hypermiling comment is not correct. Because as Jay Groh has demonstrated the hypermiling is multiplictative. A Hypermiled standard Prius gets 70 mpg in optimum rush hour conditions. The Hypermiled 20 mile pack PHEV Prius gets 200 plus mpg.

Hi xmr,

Did that result seem just a little too exagerated to be true? You forgot the cost of the car in your evaluation. Am I missing something? You have the 125,714 miles in there, which is the miles the car will go without the pack. Where do you get the $30K ? I am confused by your statements.

Ok, Cox paid $10K for the 20 mile Hymotion conversion. So your assuming the car is $20K. Lets see, taking $20K from your $30 K worth of gas and and you get 125714 miles worth of $3.50/ga gas at 44 mpg. You see, to get 44 mpg out of a Prius, us still have to buy the Prius. Its not free.

Lets do a quicky comparison. New Prius, and Hymotion 20 mile pack - $30 K you say. The pack lasts 125K miles, guestimate. He drives the car for 125K miles and gets 100 mpg. That is 1250 gallons of gas. An unmodified Prius drives for 125K miles at 44 mpg and that is 2841 gallons of gas. The difference is 1591 gallons of gas. Or about $6000. So, like Cox said, not ready for prime time. He is going to loose about $4000 unless the battery lasts longer.

Now, all one has to do to make this worth while is buy the 20 mile pack, and drive round trip to work less than 15 miles (to avoid stressing the pack). Then one can drive 125K miles on the cost of electricty, which is about 1/6 th that of gas (2841/6 = $473.15). The cost of the unmodified Prius gas is 2841 *$4.00/ga , or $11364. Subracting out the EV energy usage, and the pack needs to be less than $10891 to break even in 125 K miles of pure EV service.

So, it looks like for Pure EV, prime time is here. But the only problem with this, is that 125K miles, 15 miles/day for work (50 times 5 trips a year) is 33 years. And the car rusting and shelf life battery problems will get you first. So, again, not ready for prime time. But real neat anyway.

Seems to me they need to get this pack down to $5K for it to be a slam dunk money saver.

Your hypermiling comment is not correct. Because as Jay Groh has demonstrated the hypermiling is multiplictative. A Hypermiled standard Prius gets 70 mpg in optimum rush hour conditions. The Hypermiled 20 mile pack PHEV Prius gets 200 plus mpg.



well said. also xmr is comparing gas prices now.. which is close to 3.50. i remember a few years ago when gas was cheap, so many articles were saying that a prius is a bad idea unless you want to save the environment, because it will take over 15 years to break even since gas was like 1.5 a gallon. now its a whole different story.


i can imagine people trying to steal the prius battery packs since it cost 30k :(.. can you imagine that

It would be nice to have it cost $5k. But it isn't yet and I didn't want to wait. Maybe after a few of us buy it at $10k, $5k will be a reality. Also the 100+ figures Anita quotes are all publicity, not from me. I have only been driving a Prius for 2 months now and the car only has 1300 miles on the clock. I am also expecting higher MPG with Break-in and experience. I am finding I can average 120-160MPG (SGII) on my normal commute. Without many of the hypermiling techniques you guys are experienced at. Hopefully with time my MPG will only increase.
Chris

Hi Civic...,

Welp, gas prices are not $3.50 around here. I filled up at $3.87 on Moday, its up to $3.95 since.