Over the weekend, Enginer's 2001 Prius with 24kWh PHEV Conversion kit (three 8kWh kits in parallel) won the first place in class of Plug-in Vehicle during the 2012 Green Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, NY. In the same class, there are two Chevy Volts, one Toyota Plug-in Prius and two Gen 2 Prius with Plug-In Supply kit. Enginer's entry achieved 84.6 combined mpg, about 35 mpg better than Chevy Volt and Toyota Plug-in Prius. The competition includes two segments. Friday’s segment of the Doris Bovee Memorial Road Rallies will be a 130-mile, fuel economy event completely on the 2.45-mile short course at WGI, which has hosted competitive racing events since 1957. The rally is open to all classes of road vehicles. On Saturday, the rally moved to public roads for 104 miles and another fuel economy run. Both segments were conducted at highway speeds (45 mph) over hilly terrain. The detail result can be found at Green Grand Prix Corporation - Non-Profit Organization - Penn Yan, NY | Facebook and Welcome To The Official Green Grand Prix Web Site
For those who do not know, Toyota was the major Official Sponsor of this year's Green Grand Prix. They brought the entire line of new Priuses there for all to see. There were Gen I, Gen II, Gen III, Plug-ins (Factory and non-factory) and well as a variety of other vehicles. I did 56.7 MPG on the track, 50.5 on the road.
I sure would like to see a overal list of all participating vehicle by vehicle mpg performance instead of just the winner.......
Too bad it didn't have a/c, airbags, stereo, seating for 5, built in Nav, etc. Because then it would be better than a Prius. ;-)
not really with a car like that you dont drive fast at those low speeds airbags dont even deploy ;-) i would like to see a stripped down car a swedish city el would be nice
In a way, this makes a lot of sense that the Enginer car won the class, due to the distances involved. The PHV and Volt ran through their pack energies quickly since they start out in EV mode, reverting early in the challenge to gas guzzlers, while the Enginer system would have been blending in 3 X 3kW (?) throughout almost the entire length of both courses. I wonder if Toyota embarrassed themselves, thinking that the PHV would trounce the Volt, only to have Jack beat everyone. I noticed as well a Gen 1 Honda Insight class winner at 95 mpg. At least that car has A/C, stereo, and airbags.
"In the same class, there are two Chevy Volts, one Toyota Plug-in Prius and two Gen 2 Prius with Plug-In Supply kit. Enginer's entry achieved 84.6 combined mpg, about 35 mpg better than Chevy Volt and Toyota Plug-in Prius." I'm just curious -- if ~85 mpg beat the Volt and Plug-In Prius by 35 mpg, that means the Volt and Plug-In Prius weighed in at 50 mpg which isn't any better than a standard Prius (actually a little worse). Is that due to the nature of the track? I would have thought the competition would highlight the best mpg one could achieve. Or am I just misunderstanding? I wonder how well the Plug-In Supply kit did, I would assume better than the Plug-In Prius at least. I'd like to run something like that myself, but it doesn't come "cheap" by any means, unless you live in Colorado...
Did or was that Honda Insight OEM stock or Modification Insight?? Some1 needs to post what the PISupply Prius performed.?
We don't know the results yet, but consider the Volt. It had two full charges, for ~70 miles of possible EV range. The total course lengths were about 250 miles. 37 mpg * 250 miles/180 miles = 51 mpg. A PHV is heavier than a standard Prius. After 12 miles of EV, 80% of the pack is dead weight. On longer trips, a PHV will ultimately do worse than a standard Gen III.