How much more are you willing to pay for a Plugin?

You can convert your Prius to a PHEV now for $12,500, from Hymotion. I'm waiting for my warranty to run out in 3 years, and the price to come down a bit.

 

No, 3. I didn't get the extended warranty, for the reason that I plan to convert to PHEV in 3 years when the as-bought warranty runs out.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Oct 12 2006, 09:37 PM) [snapback]332069[/snapback]</div>

The hybrid powertrain is covered for 5/100 I believe, and the exhaust system is 8/150 (as a PZEV). You'll void those by going PHEV.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jonnycat26 @ Oct 12 2006, 08:39 PM) [snapback]332071[/snapback]</div>

Oh... I only knew about the 3 year warranty, but that the battery was warranteed for 10 years (which I was willing to give up). That's how my salesman explained it, since I asked specifically since I knew this is what I wanted to do. Guess I'll have to investigate further. Thanks for letting me know! (Some salesman, huh?)

 

The Canadian newspaper article on the Hymotion Prius PHEV conversion, posted here by Tideland Prius, had a lot of interesting facts and I thought was well worth 2 minutes to get oriented PHEV conversions.


http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=2...amp;hl=veridian

They cite:

System retrofit cost: $14,500 (presumably that's $Canadian)
Installation time: 2 hours
Battery: A123 lithium-ion, 5 kilowatt
Battery life: 6 years, 3,500 charge/discharge cycles (Though it seems to me that might be closer to 10 years at 1 cycle per day.)
Battery replacement cost: $4,000 (again, presumable $Canadian).

Probably the most interesting thing is at the tail end of the article: they say they're going to be selling these for $6500 next year. At current exchange rates that'd be $5700 $US.

Every time I see an PHEV article I re-estimate what it'd be worth to me. Putting the warranty issue, that projected $5700 doesn't strike me as too bad a price, at least for me. Because almost all of (my wife's) driving is short low-speed trips, if the PHEV battery pack would in fact last 10 years/120K miles, at $2.50 a gallon average, assuming it would displace 70% of current ICE use, netting out the cost of the electricity, the fuel cost savings would be about $3300 for me. But my contention is that a PHEV is going to make the car last a lot longer (it will certainly make the ICE last a lot longer) due to vastly reduced ICE runtimes. Extending the useful life of a $25K car from 10 to 11 years is worth roughly another $2300 in vehicle replacement costs, over the long term.

What I'm saying is that, for me, at that price, I'd think a PHEV conversion might reduce my total out-of-pocket costs, over the life of the vehicle, given how the car is driven, and given that I hold my cars until they wear out. If the battery only lasts 6 years, then its slightly cash-negative over a ten year timeframe for me, to the tune of a couple thousand dollars, under the assumptions above.

Still, taking the 6 year battery life as advertised, and assuming I'd get one more year of life out of the car due to PHEV, it looks to me like, for $200 a year or so in additional out-of-pocket costs, I could have the privilege of driving a PHEV 30 Prius. That's not too bad.

I ought to be willing to pay that for the environmental benefit alone. My understanding is that, given Virginia Power's generation mix, the C02 from the wall-socket-electric miles is about half the C02 from the gas-powered miles. Maybe a bit more. So, for me, the net reduction in C02 emissions would be roughly as much as is contained in 90 gallons of gasoline, per year. That would amount to roughly a 3.5% reduction in my family's total annual C02, near as I have been able to figure it. Ignoring the energy cost to manufacture the battery (for the time being), that would put PHEV 30 at the top of the list of options I have found but not yet implemented for reducing my family's carbon footprint. I mean, do I really have something better to spend that $200 on?

Plus I'd be the only kid on my block with one.

So, yeah, there are warranty and service issues. But still, if their projected price is real, I still think that's pretty tempting.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Oct 12 2006, 06:37 PM) [snapback]332069[/snapback]</div>

But the battery warranty is a lot more than 3, unless your putting on more than 30k miles a years.

I will probably do the conversion when the batteries start to have problems, or the price of Li-Ion drops significantly.

Dave M.

 

ZERO. 0 ..the LAST thing I want is a car I have to plug in !! that will just jack up my electric bill. ..I like the way the Prius charges ITSELF , the way it does now.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(erogla @ Oct 13 2006, 11:27 AM) [snapback]332307[/snapback]</div>

There are benifits to plugging in. While it's true, your electric bill will increase, the car more than makes up for it. At current electric and gas prices, it costs less, per mile, to run off of energy charged from the grid than it does off of gasoline. Additionally, there's a chance you could be using clean energy, and thus poluting even less. If not, then at least the polution is all centralized, where it may be easier to control it.

Additionally, the idea of a plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is that it will work just like the Prius does now, with the gas engine, an electric motor, regenerative braking, and batteries. the main difference is that the batteries will be much, much larger, and the electric motor will probably be larger as well. Additionally, you'll have a plug on the car. This means that, if you don't want to plug it in, forget to, or go on a long trip, the car will act exactly like the Prius does now. However, if you choose to plug it in, you can give the car an additional charge that can take you a certain distance (say 30 miles per charge).

So, lets say that electricity costs 1/3 that of gas. With my daily commute (6 miles each way) and plugging it in, i could, conceivably, only run off battery power the entire commute. sure, my electric bill will be higher, but i won't be stopping at the gas station.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 12 2006, 08:18 PM) [snapback]332061[/snapback]</div>

Yes...and nuclear power plants will make electricity so cheap that it won't even be metered anymore!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jimmyhua @ Oct 12 2006, 08:18 PM) [snapback]332032[/snapback]</div>

I was thinking the folks that had built their own plug in versions of the Prius had done it for $5K, and thought there was a company that would do it for around $10K.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(erogla @ Oct 13 2006, 12:27 PM) [snapback]332307[/snapback]</div>

For me, I'd hope that the electicity was cheaper than the gasoline it would burn, or at least somewhat close. Even if it's not totally cost effective (and if we were only going by "cost effectiveness", would we drive a Prius?) then for me there's the possibility the electricity is coming out of a hydro plant, i.e. clean, whereas any gasoline I buy is probably (60% chance I believe) coming from overseas, and putting carbon in the air.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 13 2006, 04:35 PM) [snapback]332467[/snapback]</div>

Too cheap to meter would mean less income for the utility that has one (and then my salary would go down.) It was a great thought at the time but didn't work out.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Oct 12 2006, 09:31 PM) [snapback]332063[/snapback]</div>

Try to get in the waiting list........ undefined time span. They are ready only for "fleet" customers with the BIG bucks, besides they only sold over a two handfull of conversions in Canada, most of them for promotion purposes. Hymotion just changed plans to use A123 batteries and the price will NOT be in the order of 12K for a finished and installed product.