I’m living in Finland and have taken over an old 2001 prius with dead hv battery. I remember some years ago reading some Threads here on the forum about making the 2001 prius plug in and bypass the fuelmotor to make it run totally on the electric motor. I have about 30 km to the childrens school and would be happy doing that on electricity. IF i remember right, by strangeling the fuel pipe, the computer would automatically switch to battery. Anybody backning this up? Greatful for tips and coments. PerViktor
"Strangulating" the fuel lines, won't solve anything. Instead, the computer would detect that the SFI system has a problem, and then failed to start. That would ki your battery, as you'd try to keep starting the car.
Gen 1 Prius's aren't designed to run on only the batteries, and don't have the capacity to do so. Eliminating the gas engine won't allow the car to move.
Thanks for your replies, so you dont see the possibillity to make gen. 1 totally electric. I have understod this from old threads 5-10 years Ago. And about finns, i wouldnt know in general, but yeah, I’m not that rich to buy a used tesla. And globally, ecologically, i believe in recycling and thought that that was an intrest in this forum..
i am sure there is a way to make it all electric. iirc, you have to spoof the computers to think it is out of gas, and of course, add more batteries. there are lots of old threads here on how it is done, if you can dig them up, but i might be thinking about gen2. since the plug in prius arrived in 2012, most people have lost interest, and most after market companies have gone out of business.
The Gen 1 battery will go about 1-2 miles in electric-only mode. So you'd have to have a very short commute. To go any further you would need to add extra batteries. The batteries would be quite expensive. $5000-$10,000. Plus the labor to install and extra parts like a charger, battery monitor, and cabling. Even then your range would likely be 40-60 miles. Can it be done? Yes. But you may be better off buying a used EV like Nissan Leaf.
Of course. For $3,000-$5,000. There are some diy electric car sites you could check out. The Prius would be a pretty poor choice for an EV. There is not a good way to integrate batteries with the motor. Better to choose a different car. Or buy someone else's project. There are plenty of them available in my area (Wisconsin) for under $5000. I'm sure you can easily find something it your area.