Can I use portable power bank to charge prius?

No because it does not carry enough power, kWh. The Prius Prime traction battery requires ~6 kWh which is 6,000 W for an hour. The L1 charger typically takes:

• 960 W = 8 A * 120 VAC
• 1,440 W = 12 A * 120 VAC

Bob Wilson

 

welcome!
you can use force charge, though it might be a little less efficient.

 

sorry, 'charge mode'. you can charge the battery to 80% while driving on gasoline, and switch to ev anytime after you have accumulated 2 or 3 miles of ev in the battery.

 

There are circuits that if too little power is applied like in a brown-out, bad things can happen like overheating. I would avoid it and just run in hybrid mode.

Bob Wilson

 

If you were in Europe, I would recommend EP Tender

Home — EP Tender

 

@ohpoloha, I agree with @bwilson4web. The device only stores 2 amp hours of energy. That's a spit in the ocean to the Prime's 6,000 amp hour capacity. Also to a PiP's capacity.

Not sure if you're talking about a PiP since that's what your info says or a Prime since that's where you posted this. Either way, it it worked at all, the car would suck that device dry in about a second, except it only supplies 50 watts. Not enough for the thousand plus watts the car will ask for.

 

I agree with the main point, but the arithmetic needs a bit more work.

Can't measure energy in amp hours, only in watt hours, where watts = amps ✕ volts.

Using Bob's figure, where he said the energy capacity of the car is 6000 watt hours (he did not write amp hours). In the Prius battery, which is around 200 volts, that comes to about 30 amp hours, but that only matters if you're comparing to something else at the same voltage.

Here's where it gets tricky: RAVPower does not give a spec for the voltage of the "20100 milliamp hour" battery in their gizmo. That milliamp hour rating by itself comes to 20 (not 2) amp hours, but we have no idea how much energy that is without the voltage that they don't publish.

But we can put an upper bound on it. They say their device is charged from a 19 volt, 1.6 amp charger input. That's 30.4 watts going in, and a full charge takes 3.5 hours, so 106 watt hours is the absolute maximum amount of energy that thing could be storing. That's if all the energy put in is available to come back out, which is never true. We're probably looking at more like 70 watt hours.

Or, about enough to replenish 1 / 100 of the charge of the Prius battery ... but even that is neglecting the fact that the energy in the gizmo's battery would have to first go through the gizmo's inverter to come out the plug end at 120 VAC, and then into the Prius's charger to be turned into 200ish VDC to charge the battery. SO, probably well under 1 / 100 of the Prius charge.

Not to mention that the gizmo is rated for a maximum draw from its plug of 50 watts continuous, 65 watts max, and the Prius L1 charger draws a minimum of 960 watts.

The gizmo will very quickly stop providing 960 watts, either because an internal protection stops it as designed, or because one doesn't.

-Chap

 

I think it's a good question but you would need a big bank of (of solar charged) 12v lead acid batteries or one of Tesla's household Li batteries. Then you would need the proper inverter.

And then I'd prefer to have wireless charging.

 

.... you could always build your own battery bank (out of a 85kwh salvaged model S pack) & management system, & inverters, as this young fellow did, with way more initiative than I ever had.

wireless charging is great for not having to plug in / & occasionally you forget, but you'll also have additional 10% loss with wireless. Then there's the unit itself, which is more expensive, + expensive to install the receiver plate on your car. So many good ideas, all it takes is time & money.
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For a PiP we'd probably be OK with smaller set up ...one good eBay Prime batt from a wreck

 

You could run a 2000 watt Honda generator (120 volts) on a gallon of gas, which would fully charge it.

 

a standard generator will not work because it has a mechanical sine wave & your hybrid is smart enough to know the difference. A pure sine wave from a higher quality inverter/generator will cost typically double what a cheap regular generator costs. You have about 20% loss burning the gas in an inverter - to then get stored/used in a battery. That's ok though for emergencies - but for efficiency purpose, just pour it into the car's gas tank, and use the generator for a few lights in your house.

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I see this a lot on Prius Chat where people live there is no way to plug in. As time goes by these apartment complexes will have to provide a way of charging BEV's or their buildings will be empty. We haven't quite reached that point yet unfortunately.
Hopefully forward looking city planners will require some kind of a plug in at each parking spot.

 

mechanical ... sine wave ... ?

 

It's not a cheap generator (clean sine wave).

 

Call it a modified sin wave - mechanical - modified square wave .... just don't call it late to dinner - because your car's onboard charger isn't listening. The real thing is smooth .... the mechanical / square wave looks like a bunch of stairs.

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