Luscious Garage PHEV system REPLACES Prius Pack

great explanation

 

i dont know about what you all think but i have ( at a friends place ) 78ah 1,2 volt cells here... same as the cells used in this topic and not 30AH but 78AH.

so the patent stuff is not a problem i guess.
these where used in big hybrid bublic transport busses

here is a picture.

 

ya and darrell has them in his RAV 4EV as well, but we have to look at when he got his and what is available now.

 

so i did not know that these are the same battery's used by toyota for the rav4 EV??
really??

i expect these are still available ( these are only ~1 year old )
you can now see smaller one's used in the nimh plugin prius where this topic is about so i guess the bigger one's must also still be made? ( or only in larger scale )

 

well gee, i "think" they are. i seem to remember that the reason 15 year old EV's have better performance than anything on the road today is because of the battery tech, patents, etc.

 

I think GP is the only NiMH manufacturer licensed to make large format. PEVE cells in RAV4 EV are 95ah. They are only allowed to produced for replacement purpose.

I guess one can make an NiMH EV using GP cells. They make as large as 105ah modules but I don't know the price.

 

Gold Peak is not subject to the large format battery restrictions, as I understand it they bought unrestricted usage rights prior to GM et al. getting control of the patent rights.

Dave, thanks for the encouragement, as soon as I've built up a reasonable amount of data I'll be sure to share. However it looks like it will be a long time before I get tank mileage from my 9/19/009 fill up. I can't provide any interim numbers because I inadvertently reset the tank mileage on the CANdapter display. The MFD display was unaffected and it's accurately showing the 440 miles I have on the tank to date, but the average mpg display is useless, showing only 99.9 mpg because it's the highest number it can display. I've just today dropped to 5 pips. So in the interim here is my mileage info to date:

I might have been too conservative in my expectations, at the present rate it appears 150 mpg is within my grasp.

 

Hello, I am new to this site and this is my first post. I had my 2007 Prius converted to the PICC PHEV system by Carolyn at Luscious Garage on October 5 & 6, 2009. I've been driving the car for a week now, mostly around town under 15 mile trips with recharge between trips. I have 165 miles on the car since conversion and my gas gauge has not moved. The Ewart software on my onboard laptop says I have used 2 tenths of a gallon of gas in that 165 miles. It's too early to tell accurately what my mileage is, but in a month or two I should have a better sense of it. I do mostly EV mode driving because of my short driving demands to work (4 miles) and back. My guess is that I am averaging 200-500 MPG. The freeway driving in EV mode is wonderful. I haven't felt this good driving since I gave up my Factory Ford Ranger EV many years ago. The integration with the Prius software and driving experience is quite good. There is a small shudder at times when decelerating or accelerating in EV mode. At the moment EV mode above 35MPH is done only with the laptop connected. I had Carolyn install a dashboard EV button for quick EV mode switching at low speed. This is very convenient when I going down to the grocery store on 25MPH roads and I don't want to boot up the laptop. I've been told that in a month or two Kim in Poway will have an upgrade so that the laptop interface will be controlled via touch on the stock Prius screen. That will be nice and make this installation seamless. Carolyn at Luscious was fantastic, professional, enthusiastic, and all-around great. She gives me confidence in this system. I can't say enough good things about Luscious Garage. I'd be happy to answer any questions about this system that I can. I'm not an electrical whiz so some the posts here go over my head. I'm an enthusiastic EV driver rather than an EV engineer.

 

Well, first question is... what did you (they) do with the OEM NiMH HV pack?

2) How much did it cost?

3) Did they upgrade the rear suspension for the extra weight?

4) Did you get the NiMH or Lithium plugin battery pack?

5) EV acceleration -- Does it now feel the electric motor (MG2) is more powerful?

 

The acceleration in town on city street is fine in EV mode. On flat and rolling freeway EV mode is fine. The one place I switch into PHEV mode is accelerating onto the freeway. I have done a few onramps with no one behind me in EV mode, but it takes time to get up to speed.

 

ok thx for the info
this is some new news.
so when you dont have the laptop connected you do not have highway speed ev.
and there is a shudder at times when decelerating or accelerating.
can this be because the ice wants to start but is prevented by doing so by the HEM interface?

 

Right. If I just jump in the car and leave the laptop at home car defaults to PHEV mode, which favors the battery and does run in EV mode at freeway speeds up to 70 MPH when the conditions are right. It seems that in this mode my mileage is about 145 MPG on freeway trips of 10-15 miles. Since I have the EV button installed on the dash, I can do low speed EV mode without the laptop up to 35 MPH. However, if I want to select EV mode and go up to 70 MPH on EV power no matter what, the laptop needs to be connected. This is a temporary situation I'm told as the software folks will soon have the laptop interface running on the Prius touch screen. That will make higher speed EV driving more convenient. I'm fortunate in that my 15 year old son is very interested in this car and tries to be my navigator every chance he gets. Sitting in the passenger seat working the laptop and watching all the data change is his idea of heaven.

Don't know why the car shudders or hesitates during higher speed acceleration and deceleration. Perhaps someone else with this system could chime in.

 

For normal EV mode, below 34 MPH, the ICE does not turn. The software can keep the engine off to a somewhat higher speed, but at some point under 53 MPH must start to spin the ICE with the fuel cut on. Over 53 MPH with the ICE off will damage the transmission and MG1. The shudder you feel is probably the ICE starting and stopping spinning. Can you tell us your speed when this happens?

 

well i do not have this system but i can drive past the 53mph in ev ( not ev mode button but ev where there is no ice fuel inject ) and then the ice starts to turn but there is not fuel use and i do not feel any shudder...
so i guess this is not what is causing it.

do you feel a shudder when the ice is just spinning ( no fuel ) or is this shudder when the ice is injected with fuel after it is already spinning at higher ev speeds?

 

The car "shudders" slightly as the ICE begins to spin at higher speeds in EV. This is done to prevent damage to the Prius' unique planetary gear system and to allow it to go above 52 MPH in EV. No fuel is being injected at this point, it just means that the vehicle is electrically spinning the ICE. This is normal behavior.

As for the laptop situation, I believe Plugin Conversions is actively working on integrating the display software into the Prius touchscreen which would eliminate the need for the laptop to switch modes.

Andrew

 

Latest news: The shudder is gone now. Turns out the 12v aux. battery was bad and only putting out 10 volts. That was messing with the traction battery computer. With a new 12v battery the shudder is gone and driving is smooth.

 

Ah, that might explain some things though it shouldn't have mattered while the vehicle was on since the HV-battery directly charges the 12v battery with a DC/DC converter...The Toyota engine ECU does store data regarding misfirings and such which gets calibrated over the course of several drives--it's possible that the 12v battery was dipping low enough to reset the Toyota ECU which would cause it to clear the data every time you turned the car off...

There still will likely be some occasional "shudders" that you may notice during EV as the ICE begins to spin at higher speeds.

Andrew