I have a 2008 prius that just turned 100,000 miles. The car is in perfect shape, someone even asked me about a month ago if it was a new car. I was thinking about converting it to a plug in using the Enginer kit. There is an installer about 50 miles away so I wouldn't be doing it myself. (Believe me I couldn't) So instead of investing in a new plug in car, is it worth having the conversion done? I drive about 20 miles to work and back. I average about 40 miles a day with the other driving I have to do. I am currently averaging about 46 MPG overall. So anyone with experience with this plug in kit or other knowledge please throw in your 2 cents worth. Thanks Jon
From a cost/financial stand point, no it is not worth it. For the technology, plug in and drive on EV mode, yes totally worth it. LT26i ? 2
Since it seems that you are not competent, mechanical/electrical speaking, it would be a very bad investment. I was probably the first 10 people who bought this kit. It worked fine, but it required a lot of tinkering. I went through 3 converters; they love to overheat. I eventually sold the batteries. The company, as far as I can remember, was great in customer service. The problem was that the kit wasn't built to last. I don't know about the recent kit. I hope they do improve. It really works, when it works. Good luck.
Here's my two cents. I don't think its worth it. The Prius is not designed to be a PHEV. It is designed as a highly efficient gas engine car with a battery assist. It is simply not designed to rely on the battery/electric side more. The MG's are really not sufficient for EV only driving (especially from takeoff). Once up to speed, it can maintain speeds below 42 w/ EV only as long as certain conditions are met (ICE warmed up and in S3b or S4 (preferably)). The other downfall to the Prius as a PHEV is it is biased to lower emissions first then efficiency second. Yes you can make mods to increase efficiency but at a hefty price (that you'll never recover). Even with the best PHEV kit (which one is best is debatable but I believe it is PICC's kit) you still have the MG power limitations that severely limit your acceleration in full EV mode. This causes you to use the ICE to get up to speed (thereby limiting mpgs you expected to gain). I'm guessing the average Enginer user gets 65-70 mpgs (just a guess, some will be more some will be less). This will leave you thirsting for more mpg gains which leads to tweaking the converter, installing an EV switch and an ICE temp spoofer (and the list goes on). The bottom line behind all of this is, the Prius is not designed to be a PHEV. My advice is to go into the whole thing with low expectations and maybe then you won't be disappointed.
If you look on the Re-Involt website, they are saying that they are taking names of people who might be interested in a Gen-2 Prius Li replacement battery. I sent in my email address but did not hear back. I do not know if they are thinking this would be a plug in or just a replacement or maybe have enhanced EV mode button.
I believe the answer to the "is it worth it" question depends on a) how much effort are you willing to put into it and b) what is your goal. If your goal is to save money, forget it if you live in the US (where gas is cheap). In the best scenarios you break even. If your goal is to just use less gas (as with me), then this can be an effective and economical route. usnavystgc makes some good points, all of which are valid. Without the ICE, the Prius has about 30 HP available from the electric motor. And with the Enginer kit, you could only maintain full throttle for a minute or so before you would have to let the kit charge the OEM battery back up. The Enginer kit is emphatically NOT an EV conversion. That being said, boosting your mpgs from 45 to 70 is highly realistic, as navy says. With not too much effort (ICE temp spoofer, EV switch, and a bit of practice) you can push that number up to 80-85 mpg. That's about where I am after ~6 months with my kit: when I am running around town with the majority of speeds below 45 mph, I am able (with practice!) to consistently get 100+ mpg. But highway driving still relies on the ICE with some MG assist, which drags my average down to the 80-85 mpg region. I don't worry about my mpg creds and we just use the thing as much as we can, highway or not. I also expect this number to go down some once winter hits. The people getting 100+ average mpg with Enginer must not drive it on the highway. I do think the quality is better since the early Enginer days (referring to kammsss comment), but it still requires some tinkering and maintenance. It is not an OEM PHEV, by any means. FWIW, for me it was totally worth it.
