Plug-in Prius Battery Upgrade

The old rule of thumb was that a change in weight of X percent dropped the fuel economy X/2 percent. People who minimize brake use and avoid friction brakes are likely to see little effect from weight.

 

He sold the kit, sold his PiP and bought a Tesla.

 

Plug-in Prius Hybrid Basics

You can talk to these guys for battery upgrade. They also convert regular prius into a plug in.

 

that's an odd website. i couldn't find anything about actually converting a prius other than questions and answers.

 

You can call them at (415) 420 9000.

I don't know much about them also but I did see a plug in converted by them last night at Stanford shopping mall in Palo Alto, CA.

 

You can add extra capacity to a Plug in Prius.
But it will cost time and money since no one has an off-the-shelf solution for this yet.
I would venture to say it would cost an additional $10,000 or more.

Boulder hybrid conversions does some pretty good stuff with PHEV conversions of the regular Prius where they swap out the main pack for a 10kwh lithium pack. Gains you 20-40 mile EV range around town.
100 mpg in regular blended driving.

Cost is currently around $13,000 installed by them or one of their installers.

I hear rumor they will have a 17kwh pack sometime as well. I would speculate that could mean a 30 to 60 mile range in town.
I suppose pricing would need to be proportionally higher as well.

If you want to talk Plug In's I'd be happy to chat anytime.

 

I'd be leary of adding on any batteries to the Prius. There have been fires, as a quick google search will reveal, but the system is designed for the the existing battery configuration. It may work perfectly, or it may not. I wouldn't be willing to gamble with mine.

 

no fires from reputable dealer installs. i would do this in a heartbeat if it was cost effective.

 

If I'm not mistaken, one of the fires was in one of those reputable dealers' own car.

 

i'm sure.

 

Famous Toyota Prius Plug-In Conversion Catches Fire, Then Explodes | Inside EVs

Aftermarket Plug-In Prius Battery Causes Balls of Fire, Explosion

 

they should never have been allowed to invent the airplane, too dangerous.

 

I'll take a properly engineered airplane over a home-made one any day.

 

The amount of power contained within a vehicle sized battery pack has to be treated with a lot a respect. Lots of very bad things can happen if you don't know what you are doing, and sometimes even if you do. That said, most of these fires were the result of experimentation. Folks trying to push the limits to find out what could be done. IMHO without the DIY community pushing the envelope, showing what could be done and creating a buzz we might never have seen a production plugin hybrid. So I personally feel like we owe them quite a bit for putting their own vehicles on the line to help move things forward.

I can understand many of the reasons why someone might desire to have a PiP with extended range vs. other PHEVs out there, but if the thought is to save money you can pretty much forget it. Between the advantages of volume production and the little matter of a $7500 tax credit there is no way to build a PiP with Volt like range for anything close to what you can buy a Volt for.

If money is less of a concern it can certainly be done. If you are serious about it I would talk to Plugin Supply, as they generally have a decent reputation and are the only ones I've seen with a mature(ish) PiP upgrade design. ~$9k for 6.2kWh is never going to pay itself back, but if you are ok with that it should do the job. Adding a second stock pack sounds intriguing as well, if you are more experimentally inclined.

Rob

 

FYI here is the thread from back in 2012 on one install of the smaller PIS kit. Yielded 26-28 miles EV total before he sold it to buy a Tesla.

Installed kit from Plug in Supply getting 28 miles! | PriusChat

Rob

 

i still don't buy it. i wonder if he's even driving the tesla, he spends so much time 'working to pay for it'.

 

Some of us love saving energy, even if it's still cheaper to use it wastefully.

My salesman was correct; the extra cost of a hybrid doesn't pay for itself in most situations. When I worked it out on a spreadsheet, it would "maybe" start paying me back after 200,000 miles. That's why they have subsidies on these things.

I bought one anyway, without any subsidies, and I couldn't be happier that I did.

 

Based on my first ~18K miles, I've estimated it will take me about 90-100K miles before I've saved enough to pay back the difference in price with no subsidies and based on the fact that I get free charging at work. Without free charging it would be more like 130-140K miles. With rebates and with free charging it is more like 20K miles. HOV sticker is just another bonus.

Mike

 

Is plugging in the car a real problem. I figure it takes about 30 seconds total to plug-in and un-plug. Ok maybe 45 seconds. Perhaps you have a more difficult situation.

 

It wasn't a fire, but the car was written-off, nonetheless.