Some insider notes on the 2017 Prius Prime

I'll bet it is because of the extra 300 pounds that the Prime weighs over the standard Prius. 3 passengers in the back (and 2 up front) would probably overload the vehicle, especially filled with us overweight Americans!

 

that must be it. i'm going on a diet starting tomorrow.

 

Yes, there's about a 3" drop from cargo area to the back of the rear seat when it's down. Kinda odd to me too.

 

I get that Toyota had to save weight and therefore ditched the 5. seat in order to be the most efficient Plug-in Hybrid on the planet,but they could at least work on the location of the battery.
Any news yet when that is going to happen ?
Do we really have to wait for the next gen. ?
All they need to do is take an Ioniq Plug-in apart !
Hyundai managed the placement of the battery perfectly,without having to compromise on boot space !

 

agreed, but no word that i have seen. i think they are selling enough to not care.

does hunday have independent rear suspension?

 

Hyundai uses lithium polymer. That's brings about a thermal & power tradeoff. Do you want that?

 

What does this mean? The batteries in the Prime are also Lithium Polymer as well. That's because LiPo and Li-Ion are just generic terms for a few different chemistries. They mean the same thing though some people (wrongly) use the term "LiPo" for pouch cells and "Li-ion" for cylindrical cells.

 

There are chemistry differences. But the more obvious is how does Hyundai keep there's cool?

Prime's pack allows a 68 kW draw. That's enough for a full EV accelerate and electric-heating.

 

I use LiPo's in my model airplanes, and the equivalent draw there is more than 5x more than from the Prime batteries (normalizing for size, obviously).

 

I can't imagine their service-life being anywhere near as long. The tradeoff in that case would be weight, shape, and power benefit.

 

Toy planes don't have 100's of Lbs of cells next to e/other where they can overheat easily too. Just saying - there are lots of other considerations ... many of which I'm certainly no expert on. Although polymer have less tendency to be dangerously volatile.
YEP .... Trade offs
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Usually not, but if they're properly maintained, they last a good while. My current set are on their 5th season.

Other way around. Our cells are stacked with no cooling between cells. For example, I use 3 and 6 cell LiPo's in my planes, and the center cell of the 3-cell stack isn't exposed on either side. And we draw much more equivalent power from them.

For example, the 8.8kWh Prime battery can max at (apparently) 68kW, which is 68/8.8 = 7.7C (7.7 times its capacity). My most demanding model can draw 95A from a 3.3Ah battery which is 95/3.3 = 28.8C, and they are not cooled.

 

That tangent doesn't seem to have any relevance to Hyundai. Do you have any data about its operation?

 

But what chemistry do they use? There are major chemistry differences quite separate from the pouch vs cylindrical construction difference.

I hope no one confuses LiPo being a pouch construction with LiFePO being a particular chemistry.

 

I don't know the chemistry as the manufacturers don't say. Lithium Iron Phosphate's are just called "LiFe" (pronounced "life") in our hobby. They're used as well but for other purposes than propulsion.

 

fair enough - but your prius / hyundai / kia / volt etc packs don't just come out to play in fair weather - & operate in the windy sky for a realtively short time. The car's pack will bake sitting on hot 140° asplalt - sometimes for weeks or days on many occasions - & it will have to regularly run hard for (sometimes) 4 - 6 - 8 or more hot hours then maybe do it again - day in & day out. If I had to be a battery in a phev or a remote control hobby plane, I know which I would rather be.

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The car. That's why car batteries last 3 times longer (15 years vs 5) and endure 10 times as many cycles (4,000 vs 400) - because they are better cared for.

I regularly charge my batteries at 2C (full charge in 30 minutes, 30% to 100% in 20 minutes) and I always charge to a float voltage of 4.2V (the car limits float to much less which is why max charge is 83% in John's videos). I've used them on 15 degree days and 100 degree days. I sometimes put 5 hard cycles (100% to 30% in 3 minutes) on them in one day.