Is there a way to make a standard Prius have plug in capabilities

In a word, No.

The Prius isn't designed to be an EV. There are kits available or you can wait until next year and buy the official plug in Prius. Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I haven't seen anyone do it, and i would not reccomend it. Here's why.

You are proposing to charge a very large Nimh battery. You have two choices. A) Charge it with the car not in Ready mode, and supply all your own protection. B) Charge it in Ready mode, wasting a significant amount of energy (the car consumes ~200 watts while sat in Ready, so your charger must supply more than this) and a big security risk (anyone could just get in and drive away.

DO NOT DO OPTION A!
If something goes wrong and your charger does not shut down the battery will get overcharged, expand, vent and eventually ignite. Venting will probably write off the car.

Option B, if your car is somewhere secure and you can supply it with ~2kw of 240V DC power you can charge from 2 bars to 8 bars in about 10-15 minutes. if you don't turn it off at this point it will then start spinning the engine to burn of the excess power, so you either need something monitoring the SOC to shut it down at 75%, (and turn off the car) or you need to sit with it while it charges and shut down at the appropriate time.

It's certainly possible, but i think the caveats are too many. A small capacity plugin kit may be a better solution for you.

 

There are ways, but it is all do-it-yourself and is hazardous. Primarily Honda Insight modders have fabricated HV power supplies by daisy-chaining ATX computer power supplies, or MeanWell 48V supplies. For them, they get an added benefit of rebalancing the battery pack, for which the Honda BCM is horrible. But they only charge to 175V. Gen II needs to charge to maybe 245V. You may also be able to find a lab HV power supply on ebay.

I have tried other driving styles but usually when I leave home ice is cold so motor runs regardless.

Perhaps installing an engine block heater to plug in and/or the Arduino temperature hack would improve things?

 

I looked into this for quite some time but I always came back to the thought, "this just isn't worth it." My reasons for that are:

1. It's dangerous to charge the battery yourself, especially if you don't know what you are going.

2. You will never recoup the cost it would take to find a good charger.

3. This can decrease the life of the battery.

4. Maybe not for you but for me, sometimes I get home with only three bars gone. This leaves me to charge the battery 2-3 bars, which isn't much in terms of saving gas money.

I agree with Seilerts here. An engine block heater really does save gas and is a good mod to do.

 

They're saying (and I agree) that to mod the HV battery so it can be charged directly is NOT a good idea.

The alternative I've taken is to purchase the Enginer 2kwh kit (price varies, but I paid ~$2000). With the car running--in Park and EV mode on--and the Enginer charger plugged in, I can charge the 2kwh kit + the HV battery from ~56% SOC to 75% in about 45 mins from a standard 120v outlet.

Avoid going higher, but it won't destroy the HV battery to do so...don't go above 80%, although I've gone to 82% a couple of times when I forgot to check it.

 

Seems like a great price to me.

 

Yes compared with what you were trying to do with EV mode getting that conversion sounds like a good plan stefano.

The problem is that what you were trying to do with EV mode just wasn't working for you. You may think that it's increasing your MPG by trying to drive a mile and a half in EV mode but in reality it was just punishing both your engine (ICE) and your battery the next morning as well as negating any fuel savings you made he previous day.

I've tried using EV like that and very soon came to the conclusion that it doesn't work. Now days I always try to get he car home with a full 6 bars state of charge. It just runs so much better next time I'm starting out with a cold engine.

 

I'm not fan of of aftermarket PHEV kits, but that's just me. Based on some of my random browsing here before, I wouldn't recommend Enginer. It seems too hacky and unreliable. See http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-p...product-quality-april-2011-a.html#post1294825, for example and spend time browsing Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications - PriusChat Forums. http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-phev-plug-in-modifications/91704-enginer-kit-question.html was FirstFlight's thread.

It sounds like HyMotion is a lot more reliable but very costly. It was reliable enough to alllow achievements likehttp://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-fuel-economy/65307-2502-miles-299mpg-in-prius-ii-plug-in-hybrid-electric-vehicle.html and it's used by RechargeIT.org.

BTW, this is what can happen charging extra NiMH packs goes awry.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ack-voltages-grid-charging-4.html#post1291061
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...e-mod-under-way-bristol-uk-32.html#post885615
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_batt.html (search for don't use manual)

 

Yeah the price is right.

Stefano, if you could update us with your opinion of how well the conversion works after you've had it for a few weeks that would be great. I'm sure you'll be shooting for a 1000 mile tank now.

 

1,000 mile tank is definitely possible, but even with no system failures since 29th of march i cannot average much above 83mpg(US), mainly because of my commute (60mph up and down some decent hills). What you should really look for is a 50% boost in fuel economy.

 

Uhh... unless your wife is very tolerant of failures, you'd better complete a few 1000+ mile trips w/o failure first.

 

I suppose so. Again, I have no interest in these kits. If I did, I'd get HyMotion.

Seriously, browse through Prius PHEV Plug-In Modifications - PriusChat Forums. I would be very curious to see if your experiences prove me wrong.