4kwh Enginer GenIII PHEV in UK

Hmm. bit too far then, unless you regularly get jobs into leeds and can just top up every time you're there.

Sounds like what you really need is a prius phev with about 50 miles range, so you can get the best of both worlds.

 

Well my new BMS arrived yesterday, is intalled and..... it all works!

I charged it up and it was balancing the cells and paused charging a few times to get them in balance better. Drove to work this morning (which is typically 60mpg, has been lower in the cold weather - one tank in december was 54mpg) and achieved 79MPG. so not exactly the advertsied "50%-100% improvement" but sizeable nonetheless. my best ever tank in the height of summer was 73MPG, so i'm hoping to see that 79mpg creep into the 90's as we get warmer.

Pictures and videos to follow weather permitting. I'll stick up one showing my work commute as well, which will hopefully make the 79mpg seem a little more impressive, there's a few hills involved.

 

On the way home tonight i did this section in all electric (not EV mode - the car was too cold for 30mph mode, and i need to go faster than 30mph anyway - but left portion of the HSI) and it's 2.6 miles long
Lowick Rd to Ringstead Rd - Google Maps
I went down from 6 bars to three, but at the end i was doing over 40mph. i suspect on level ground at a steady 30mph you could go 5-10 miles. if you were stopping all the time for traffic lights etc you may be able to empty the whole pack without needing the engine.

It's still too dark in the morning for a decent commute video, you can have it in a couple of weeks
I'll try and get some video of me mucking about at the weekend.

I don't know if the phone effect is real, or just you play with a new phone a lot which makes it run out quickly... I don't think the enginer batteries will do this. for me now the limiting factor is not total capacity but how quickly i can get the power out (kit is limited to 14 amps max, which is 3.2kw. it would take about 75 minutes to empty the pack.) my total commute time is about 45 minutes, and 26 miles, and the pack is not empty at the end of it, with about 40% charge left. for the moment that's ok since i can't charge at work and my wife often takes the car out in the evening. however i'd like to add a second DC converter to empty the pack each day, and charging points are going to be installed at work soon.

 

Costs:
Deposit: £332
Balance: £1,489
Customs, VAT, and "other" shipping: £453
Faulty BMS: £51

Total: £2,326.61

I did the install myself.

Considering 20% of the cost of single kits is the shipping duty etc it makes a lot of sense for someone to import a bunch at once. I don't know whether anyone could run a succesful business with the current product, but it's close.

Just as a performance update, 495 miles on the current tank at 81mpg. Looks like i'll only have to do one fillup in january which is nice

 

Yes the additional costs have made payback a challenge. It definitely doesn't make sense for fleets or someone looking for a 12 month payback. but i'm sure it won't be long till petrol is £1.50 a litre so then it'll make more sense. if i can get the kit to empty it's 4kwh on the way to work, charge at work, and empty again on the way home, i should see better MPG as well. As you say, the geek aspect is good as well, and i have spent plenty on other cars which didn't "pay back" like heated seats and spoilers and audio systems etc.

My next task is to get the DVLA to understand what i've done. Not sure if they will reduce the CO2 emission rating, i hope so, as it will only be a couple of years before we're paying road tax again otherwise.

Friends think it's mildly interesting, but don't have the money for a kit never mind a prius.

Family are bored of hearing about it! My brother in law is an electromechanical engineer at cummins diesel and in charge of their "green" projects (they have massive water dynos and load banks that dump several megawatts of power into heat during engine testing. he is designing their first regen test cell! he's also done project reducing test time which saved tens of thousands of litres of diesel a year) so my little car seems like a joke in comparison, but is also interested.

My wife is VERY bored of it! Whether i'm talking about it, thinking about it, posting here or the Enginer forum, she is fed up. She's also not keen on plugging it in herself, so i think wireless charging will be a boon for the industry in future.

 

Yes insurance notified, they updated the policy at no charge.

Enginer did a nice set of data from the Chrysler emissions lab following the EPA UDDS cycle. it showed that in CD (charge depleting) mode the prius was outputting 45g of CO2 per kilometre compared to 83g/K on CS (charge sustaining/normal prius mode).
http://www.enginer.us/forum/index.php?topic=321.0
don't know if the DVLA can use the data, but getting down in the 40's would make me still able to get congestion charge for free (not that i use it) and stay at £0 road tax for a few years.

For the plug i have some blue CEE connectors (like in caravan parks) which are IP44 rated. It's going under the rear bumper on the black plastic cover thing, the wife does not want a hole in the bumper...!

 

Yes, one of the fuses had come loose, it's sorted now.

Unfortunately, i think i have a defective cell. it's made of 4 parallel cells in a string of 16 series units, (so 64 in total) and i think just one of them has gone on the 16th set. i don't know if i can replace it myself or if Enginer/Realforce will need to rework it, they are getting back to me.

 

Sorry Jands, missed your question.

Yes, for DIYers you must diagnose and and confirm the fault yourself. You don't need more than a socket set and a multimeter for most things, so tools is not a big issue. -confirming- a fault is tough. only thanks to Prius_uk did i diagnose the faulty BMS, and his faulty charger. it's a bit tough. the battery fault was a little easier, after stripping it down there were obviouslty swollen cells.
Yes, you are asked to return faulty parts, and yes, it's expensive! if you're returning the converter or batteries they are heavy...

But, onto the good news. my new battery cells arrived, and they work. Did a bit of driving around, got some petrol and zero'ed my trip meter. i will let you all know how i get on this time...

 

Yeah, it's not been a smooth ride so far. i'm hoping the teething troubles are all over...