Is there someone out there that can or has designed a little system similar to watercraft in the 25 to 50 foot range that makes it so that I can plug in my Prius when I get home and it charges the traction battery to a full state of charge and then shuts down so that every morning when I leave I have a full battery? I don't want a full PHEV where you change out the batteries so you can run on electric for many miles I just want to be able to charge up my existing battery system so its full every morning. With all the engineers reeading Prius chat this should be a walk in the park!
I believe it's been discussed in the past but it's my understanding that the conversion for such a thing would never pay for itself. I seem to remember a thread that talked about how many watt hours the battery is and how much gasoline you're actually saving by having the battery topped off each morning. Remember, each morning your car has to get up to operating temperature anyway (for emissions purposes) so it might as well be charging a bit while the ICE is running. Further, I believe I remember something about only saving pennies worth of fuel each time you top the battery off. I'm sure someone will much better be able to reply to your inquiry. Mike
I agree with Mingolia's post. What you may want to concider, if you don't already use them is EBH's for you cars. I don't personally plan to use one since there's no way I'm giong to get out of our neighborhood in EV mode anyway, at least not without an EV Mod, and we live in the southeast, not much cold weather lately. EBH's may save more than topping of the battery would. Just a thought. :noidea:
