Featured Prius Prime Embargo

If Toyota officials say that they want to push next prius mpg to 60, then it definitely won't be a plug-in hybrid. Also most Toyota cars will be hybrids, when next gen introduced. I think Toyota will need a revolution, same as the NHW10 prius. A hydrogen hybrid would be good news.

 

What is a hydrogen hybrid? An ICE hybrid that runs on hydrogen, or is it a fuel cell car(FCEV)?

A plug in fuel cell might be in the future, but it likely would be filled with hydrogen. There are issues in using pure hydrogen as a fuel for the US car fleet.

 

But they said just the opposite!

 

Hybrid mode 60MPG, perhaps.

 

plug in popularity is still a ways down the road. it makes sense to continue the bridge with more hybrids in the meantime. and why fuss over a couple more mpg with the prius, just go through the list of suggestions and make the car itself more popular.

 

An ICE hydrogen hybrid is an ICE HV that runs on hydrogen as a fuel, but its not an EV vehicle and certainly not a zero emissions vehicle.
A fuel cell is a vehicle propelled only by fuel cell and its a zero emissions vehicle. I think Toyota brought to market a fuel cell forklift or intended to bring to market, I am not sure.
A fuel cell hybrid is a vehicle that runs on hydrogen uses two power source (battery+fuel cell) and its a zero emissions vehicle.
Am I correct?

 

Hybrid mode means without the plug-in battery. Correct?

 

There are a couple brands of fuel cell fork lifts available. Don't know who exactly, but they have been out for several years now.

Fuel cells are slower to react to driver demands than an ICE, so FCEVs have a battery to act as a buffer. They aren't a hybrid though. A hybrid has an electric power source in addition to the traditional ICE. FCEVs and just one power source, the electric motor.

 

There is only one battery in a plug-in hybrid so no. Some use software to show two batteries in the information displays to help differentiate the operating modes.

 

Yes. Also called Charge Sustain mode.

 

Toyota will continue to up the mpg game just so some will upgrade, like Apple fanboys.

I bet it is addition of capacitors to help make it happen. Toyota already testing it now. And with the LeMans race team, they will get more study results until gen5 comes out.

 

I believe this year they use batteries.

Probably 5Gen will have a SiC inverter, already being tested.

 

i thought a hydrogen hybrid was a rolling coal furnace, used to fire a micro steam turbine, used to make electricity, used to distill/reform hydrogen & compress it, which was then used to run an electric motor to move the car. See ... that way it's electric . . . . an clean.

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You can run an H2 ICE car by putting H2 in the carburetor just like natural gas or gasoline. But I assume it is not as efficient as FCV. It could be zero emissions (I assume) there is a YouTube video of that guy making the H2 at home via solar, and then he uses Lithium deuteride (low pressure) storage on the vehicle. You can get toys that work on this principle but apparently does not scale well (there was one FCV based on this but it died).

 

yes it COULD be virtually emission free - and it's technically been done - even way way back when Jack Nicholson had hair & no pot belly. I like it where Nicholson snorts the exhaust;

Even ICE burned hydrogen has some quantity of burned crankcase oil though, due to cylinder & head lubrication. Then there's 'efficiency' issues. Those 1970's pv panels (measly 10% efficient at best) that they boast about, & used to harness electricity? Even modern pv efficiency isn't nearly as efficient as natural gas hydrogen reformation. And of course - you cut big oil out? That's a no no. Install an electric motor & fuel stack - you cut out the need for engine manufacturing & that's a no no

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I think demographics for hybrids have skewed very far to having a garage. With cafe 2025 rules giving bonuses for plug-ins, and toyota still wanting to sell lots of trucks and SUVs, the regulatory credits by themselves may pay for difference in cost from a 1.3 kwh nimh battery to a 4 kwh lion battery - the question is can they find room for it in the design. Then you sell an upgraded battery for range that may eat cargo space.

There is one liquid fuel that can be made easily from all this fake excess hydrogen, but also from plant waste and natural gas (CH4). This magic element is methanol CH3OH, and can be made easily from Hydrogen (H2) by adding some wind electricity and carbon dioxide (CO2) (2CO2 + 4H2 + energy (electricity and/or heat) -> 2CH3OH +O2. California experimented with methanol and found blends up to M85 worked great, but when methanol prices were higher than gas prices those with flex fuel vehicles went to the E10 cheaper stuff.

Wonderfully thing is you can spend about $100 and modify a prius engine to burn it. Would a flex fuel prius prime burning methanol be more energy efficient with the hydrogen as a mirai? I don't know but probably close, and methanol is cheaper than 10,000 psi hydrogen and always will be, and the car likely will be much less expensive for a long time too.

 

I've read of one clever individual who converted a Prius to propane, which I did decades ago to a 1970's series Ford Econoline, but I've never seen anyone convert a Prius to methanol. Still, I'd love to hear about one that has already been done. Unlike propane, I would be doubtful that it's ever been done - even though it could be done. After all - the US has failed miserably to use methanol as a common refueling station - despite its advantages.

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