Supposedly EDrive will finally be selling their system in August, 2008, but starting in California only. Then recently there's OEMtek (also Calif. I think), and AmberJac in the U.K. (but that might be dated information). Obviously Toyota themselves have a few that they'll be putting in fleet tests, but not sold to the general market any time soon.
I sure hope so. I called Hymotion this week to see about getting a kit sent to Costa Rica and installed by the Toyota importer here. I was met with a very rude reception basically telling me to not even think about it and that they where not interested in talking to me about bringing this to Costa Rica. Its not like I am planning to install it on my own - anyways I'm looking for a good alternative as well.
Costa Rica is a wonderful place. I once had a psychic tell me I would retire to Costa Rica in a nice little house on the beach somewhere. She failed to mention how I would afford this however! Maybe driving a Prius is the way, huh? :target:
Hymotion covers any warranty that is voided by Toyota for doing this install. Hymotion requires that their trained techs do the install. I doubt it would be cost effective to fly their team down to Costa Rica for the install.
There are others, but Hymotion are the first ones to release a conversion targeted at the general public for a reasonable(ish) price. You can find a summary of many of the major players here: Prius PHEV - EAA-PHEV I know people give Hymotion some grief over pricing, location etc but I think thats a bit unfair. 3 months ago you could only get a plugin conversion by either doing it yourself for $4-10k, or paying ~$30k for an experimental conversion with no warranty and only installed at their home base if they would even sell you one. IMHO $10k with a 3 year warranty and a growing list of installers is a huge step forward for a product this complex and revolutionary. Rob
1. I offered to pay for them to send someone. 2. I work closely with the local Toyota importer - and we have offered to send to there to get trained. Both offers where rejected - its not even so much that - but the BAD attitude about our even suggesting this that we encountered. Anyways I'm sure they are flooded with requests but it could have been handled much better.
Hmm...just saw this thread in the recent post listing and thought I'd pitch in. I have a Plugin Conversion Corp (Plug-In Home) 25 mile EV range conversion kit installed in my car. It's not cheap but it's powerful (it replaces the OEM battery entirely with a higher power battery allowing constant EV up to 70 MPH). You get what you pay for with PHEV systems =). Speaking of EDrive and OEMTek--has anyone heard anything from them lately? Andrew
