Plug-in Prius Display info.

A little reality check here. Yes, we in northern cities do have block heater plugins, but never at parking meters. At most company lots the power is cycled, an hour on, an hour off. Power is expensive, and block heaters (the Prius one is an exception) consume a lot of power. Most are at least a kilowatt, many are at or above 1.5 kW. My Subaru for example.

Now, in the winter here, when it's -usually- "dry" (dry snow and ice), the standard 3 prong outlets work just fine. I wouldn't want to try to use them in the rain! You need GFI at the least, and waterproof/weatherproof is very desirable. These waterproof outlets/cords are expensive. So -when- you drive off without unplugging, not -if-, it can get expensive!

There is some work left to do to make plugin hybrids practical in all places.

But I'd love to have a plug-in Prius! Unfortunately most Alberta power comes from coal plants.

 

Thanks, fixed.

Sorry to hear you guys get so screwed. In AZ we pay about 9c/kWh in the day, 2c/kWh at night. Of course the down side of that is we have 3M people ~20 miles down wind of the country's largest nuclear power plant.

Rob

 

I realize I was exaggerating a little bit.

Weatherproof outlets are certainly a good idea, although full inductive charging (as advocated in the 90s for EVs) is expensive and seems like overkill.

Even the cal-cars open source conversions have a charge interlock to prevent driving off while plugged in, so I think its safe to say the real ones will have the same.

Plug-in won't be a perfect answer for everyone in every situation, but it would work very nicely for a very large percentage of the population.

Rob

 

considering my 13.8 mile RT commute... oh im guessing (with A gallon of gas in the tank just in case) 2.... maybe 300 miles per gallon!!

 

Is that why you bought a Prius? A very wise choice. Which car did your Prius replace and what other alternatives were you looking at?

 

This is way off topic, but;

It replaced a 95 Mitsubishi Montero. Which was an outstanding car BTW. 175k miles. Ran like new. However, I averaged 17-18mpg.

Final choice was between a Cadilac CTS and a Prius. I drove a lot of cars. I also really like the Dodge Charger. In the end I decided I only liked rear wheel drive cars, but then the Prius became so techinically interesting. Since it is low power and not built for handling, the FWD was not an issue. I drive a lot, and the 45 mpg is very beneficial!

 

After some thought, I suspect that as with the current Prius, it will be better to not attempt to use the full battery range, but to use it sparingly if going more than the EV range before recharging. One factor that would impact the usability would be how much charge is currently lost by the limited capacity of the battery. I know in my commute of ~13 miles, if I am not careful, I will run the battery down to 3 bars when I arrive home in warm weather. Then I end up paying for it on the next first few bars of the next commute.

So I guess my curiosity is how the heavier battery will impact MPG when it has to be recharged through the ICE. I don't expect too much of an impact in reality and the end result could be a marginal increase of overall MPG when required to have commutes longer than the EV range. Since with practice one might be more efficient at utilizing the increased capacity for regenerative braking and charging from the ICE. I keep coming back to the thought that even though the battery could go EV longer, the ICE would have to run longer to charge it back (or keep it in the ideal 40-80% range of the current Prius). So there isn't a free lunch (ie high increase) without doing trips within the range or being able to get free recharging somewhere.

Anway, just some random thoughts that may or may not make since at the current hour. Difference commutes could probably make for very different results (just as they do now).

 

You don't really have to wonder, there are conversion phev's already out there that have pretty much figured this out. From what I have seen they are finding:

For long trips you are basically correct, you want to drive it just like a prius. With lead acid, the mileage improvement due to larger, lower resistance battery is at least enough to cancel out the 200-300 lbs of battery. With lighter, better batteries, you should actually pick up a few mpgs.

For shorter trips (where you can then recharge), you pretty much want to spread the battery over the whole trip and end up with nothing left. This can mean heavy EV use for lower speeds, or a lot more warp stealth at higher speeds. Most phev conversions maintain a higher than stock SOC to make it easier to spend more time in these modes. In this way you move as much of the energy source from gasoline over to the electric grid as possible. Ideally you would then purchase that electricity from green sources (or even better make your own).

Rob

 

And I thought we had it bad at $0.13+ / KWH!!!