Rainbow Prius Hybrid Powered by Lithium!

[QUOTE="2k1Toaster, post: 3094511, member: 61950"The 100A+ happens extremely often in my vehicle. I drive with a lead foot, live on a mountain, and drive the Prius at speed through the Rocky Mountains. Merging onto the interstate from nothing to 80mph+ requires pedal to the metal. This is not a rare occurrence for a wild Prius in North America. And it is not a once a drive occurrence either.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. I regularly hit 100+ amps regularly as well. This screenshot is with the lithium test pack during some hard driving!

 

@Chip

How many bars have you been able to get the pack down to?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Was this uphill both ways with a 90 mph headwind and -20F outside while towing a trailer?

 

It had a worn but functional battery, barely noticeable difference:0

the guy across the street from me gets 19mpg all winter in his 2006

 

The lowest I've ever been able to get the lithium pack is just below 40% SOC, or two bars on the screen. That was during a power outage when I was using the car to power an inverter to keep my fridge and other appliances on.

 

Nice, I should be getting an one of those from PlugOut Power soon.


Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

@jacktheripper off topic and I may have missed it but would you care to share the specs on the wheels you have?

 

Can’t wait for the unveil of the lithium pack! Would love to know any details when that comes out.

 

Was able to get my Lithium pack down to two bars for the second time.

Same way 15 Fwy North in traffic.
This time the ICE kicked in and started charging it and I tried to use more gas pedal to charge it.

Charge went from two to four bars really fast and once the traffic was free it charged right up real easy.

This battery pack is amazing.
You can really use a lot more pure battery with this since it charges right up again.



Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Lol that's pretty much what I meant. The car drives. Mileage will be terrible, but it still goes. Toyota engineering at its finest.

 

@Grit

Let me make it easier to understand.

I use the hybrid traction battery without using the ICE longer.

And since this Lithium battery charges up faster than the OEM I can begin to use the traction battery quicker and repeat the cycle.

More use of the traction battery without the ICE equals more MPG.


Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Do you have comparitive numbers for fuel economy?

 

I'm not convinced that is true. All the energy you use from the battery comes from the ICE. So there is no mpg gain in using battery or using battery more. On the contrary: charging and discharging the battery more causes more charging losses and does not contribute to fuel economy. The only mpg gain you might get is if there are less losses charging or discharging the battery. And I suspect that would be marginal.

 

Didn't you know Iron Man tossed out his Arc Reactor and installed a Lithium battery?

 

Just by having a bigger battery will give you more mpg in total if you think logically.
I'm going to start with the easiest to understand and make my way to more composed examples.
Example 1
Going down a tall hill. Have you ever drove your hybrid down a long descent, so long that your battery is topped to the max and the car uses engine inertia to slow you down instead of regen, with a larger battery capacity you will top up later and be able to store more of that inertia into usable energy instead of using engine or physical brakes.
Example 2
In cold weather do you find your ICE starting to heat up the blowers and occasionally it tops the battery up to a point where it will reduce the generator power pull from the idling ICE but yet still burning gas, if you have a bigger capacity of a battery you will continue to store that energy and use it on the road later instead of just idling away trying to create heat.
Example 3
Large battery means when you are in traffic, you will have more capacity to craw in electric mode so that improves your overall mpg, ever remember in heavy traffic your battery is depleted and your ice turns on to charge the battery while you are sitting at a light or crawling, remember that mpg go down while that happens. With a larger battery capacity you can sit there longer and craw longer without switching to ICE.
Example 4 with a bigger battery and better capacity for spontaneous output you can even pull away with electric, remember if you step on it the car will kick into ICE early to compensate for the power demand with a drained battery(<50%), well with example 1, 2, 3 we already established a bigger battery capacity so the chances of you low on power is significantly reduced thus you will require less ICE to static charge and you will be able to recover more power.
Overall better capacity for recovery better mpg. And from what I recall the rainbow packs are even lighter and cheaper per kilowatt hours.
Just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean you can't figure it out with some common sense.
If you can understand bigger tesla battery pack models can go further with one charge surely you can wrap your head around a bigger battery for your hybrid will increase your intervals before lighting up that ICE.

 

I totally understand what you are saying buddy! As you know I'm trying to get my PhD... I find it most times I got it all figured out but for people who are just dropping by you really have to describe it in a way they can relate to.
I'm sure that battery is awesome, with the on paper stats you can already start to get excited that it will for sure bring better mpg to the overall system. Pretty jealous you guys got to test it out, I just want to buy it when my oem kicks the bucket.
Please keep us updated as I know everyone is really busy.
Hi all you lovely Prius owners! You already at the front of technology, people who have never driven or own a hybrid will never understand how 70mpg is even possible. You can say they are ignorant or don't know any better. Prius owners are usually more open minded for new and improve tech, just because something going into your car doesn't have a Toyota stamp on it... doesn't mean it will suck.

 

I also have the Lithium pack and have experienced the same thing. It seems the lithium packs charge faster while holding a charge longer than the stock battery, which results in higher MPG. I've noticed I've been able to ride in EV mode significantly longer than I was able to with my stock pack.

 

So the lithium battery recharge amperage is larger/higher from the Prius compared to the stock ni mh, the prius pick and chooses recharge rate depending on battery chemical make up?