Plug-in Prius with Lithium-ion batteries

[mindthoughts1974]

My 2000 Honda insight gets more miles per gallon than any other hybrid mass produced to date, in the USA. Miles per gallon have only gone down, from the first hybrid sold in America. My lifetime mpg is 67mpg and my 2000 insight has 322,000 miles on it.

[MikeStone05]

This probably explains why the oil companies had raised up the gas prices to nearly $5.00 per gallon, because they know that the electric vehicles are gonna take over in the future coming years, therefore squashing out gasoline.

[twinwillow]

Prius is coming out with an electric plug in/hybrid in early 2012. It's on my list.

[urbex2007]

4kW to charge, so in the UK that is roughly 50p for 30miles. I pay £1.14 per gallon of diesel and that takes me 55miles in the town and 72miles at 60mph on a motorway. Cost of a conversion is £3000 and cost of a used Prius is £17000. So £20000 in total. Cost of a used 1.6tcdi Ford Focus = £8000, which leaves £12000 over. It will take a VERY long time to pay that for diesel ! That's why it isn't worth it. Diesel technology left the Toyota Prius standing 20years ago, the prius is dead & gone...

[urbex2007]

4kW to charge, so in the UK that is roughly 50p for 30miles. I pay £1.14 per gallon of diesel and that takes me 55miles in the town and 72miles at 60mph on a motorway.

[kooch555]

good for you guys..live oil free..but what kind of performance do you get from your hybrids? we have the same dream...oil-free..but don't you still pump gas?? just less often?? isn't that still sending cash overseas??...consider CNG...all domestic..we have 100 years worth of natural gas..

[Spitphire3]

The Pentagon just release that $1 trillion dollars worth of lithium was discovered in Afghanistan recently. Now I'm no conspiracy theorist, but that seems like a nice little profit. Controlling Afghanistan, like we've been trying to do for nine years, might make us the controllers of next gen power similar to the Saudis with oil. So is "green" energy and global warming about the environment or money and power?

[TehMG]

People are quick to say that electric cars are "green", however, you have to ask yourself the following questions:

1) where does the electricity come from? many areas get their power from coal-fired plants, which is far from green

2) what about the environmental impact of battery manufacturing and recycling?

[LOLDISNEYLAND]

For the millionth time.

1)Some people choose to use 'green' energy sources to charge their car, Wind, Solar, etc . I for instance have a photovoltaic solar array on my roof which produces enough energy from the sun to charge my prius and supply my house and get some extra cash due to excess. Coal fired power plants can be considered green under a different theory also.

2)Toyota has a battery recycling program and recently have extended warranties on all batteries due to their epic reliability

[LOLDISNEYLAND]

2) Also, battery manufacturing is more of a process control affair rather than an anxiety about whether it will detrimentally affect a local environment. Most manufacturing plants are required by law to follow strict hazardous materials rules/laws. Most byproducts are recycled or reused in other industries. For some retrospective, lead acid batteries in cars are far more toxic than NiMH batteries every could be both pre and post production. And every roadworthy car has a lead acid battery.

[ugobbi]

1) search the internet, you'll find out the producing 1 megawatt at a power plant polluts lot less the 1 megawatt produced by an regular car engine.

2) batteries are 100% recyclable.

[turboshagna]

@TehMG Lithium is mega recyclable and the energy used to create them and create the electricity to charge them down the power lines from coal is more green than refining transporting and burning gas/petrol. Even if the lithium is not recyclable the new ones dont pollute like older types of batteries. That's why people are doing this if they can afford it

[Ixionic]

I'm interested in knowing where you bought the lithium ion battery packs and how much the total cost for the entire modification?

Also is it possible for someone to go to a shop and do this for a customer? If so do you know of any places to do this?

[jstack6]

check it out, we have giga watts of AC on the grid off peak. That's why you can sign up for Time Of Day power pricing and get 4 cents a KwH at night and week ends but pay 20-30 for peak during the middle of the day.

We all have to work together, or you can continue to buy your oil from imports as we do now where 60% if foreign and not the nicest people. I hope we can all work for a solution.

Personally I ride a bicycle .

[inthewired0000]

ummm, have you ever seen a cars petrol tank explode? moron...

[jstack6]

yep, it's like 80 cents for American made electric with much less pollution. Let's plug in.

I'm on the list for the A123 conversion. I'm sure I'll get 100+ mpg since I now get about 60 mpg by driving smart.

[SakoTGrimes]

Funny how people consider a hybrid that you have to plug in a step forward.

[inthewired0000]

even if you directly compared the car charging from non-clean coal powerplants and one running from petrol it would STILL be better on the environment to be running from the plugin. So yes it is a step forward. Especially assuming that the owner could be paying for 100% green power.

Not sure of US but in australia you can sign up with 100% fully green supplied power providers.

[tsport100]

How many wh/mi does a Plug in prius use in EV mode?

[LatteLiberal]

Liberals love this crap but mobody is going to drive them! Blacks take the bus anyways because they dont want jobs and cant afford them. Hippies dont work either. Families need SUVS to get to soccer practice. You cant fit a whole team into a prius! This is stupid! We should take over the middle east and have all the oil we need to waste money on this crap.

[tickle2012]

Yeah, absolutely mobody.

[inthewired0000]

yeah that way people like you can continue buying 21mph "HYBRID", "40% more efficient than the last" POS pickups like GMC sierras, Chev Silverado etc.

Mobody wants to read your trash

[hakanseckin]

than why are you here and reading watching and writing all that? because you are interested but cant have it. sucker.

[HeartInSanFrancisco]

Well put together video. Got all the essentials. Interesting.

[tadaa11]

It's pathetic that Toyota has not done this yet. We have normal people doing PHEVs what's wrong with the auto manufacturers.

[tsport100]

Toyota are way behind on battery technology and still sell NiMH in their EVs. All these converters are installing Li-ion cells which have a much higher power density.

[tadaa11]

It would be so much cheaper for Toyota to do this.

[inthewired0000]

i don't understand though, why does this car still only get 30miles of a full charge of Li-ion? how far do the standard NiMH get? Its just 30miles isn't as far as i'd expected...

[tsport100]

A standard NiMH Prius has a 1.3 Kw/hr battery pack and gets only about 5 miles in EV mode vs. 40 EV miles from the 16 Kw/hr of Li-ion in the Volt.

It's still early days for EV scale Li-ion battery manufacturing, most big volume plants are still under construction but there is no question Billions are being invested in production capacity which will come on line in the next year or two.

[inthewired0000]

Ahh righto, cheers for that

[liveoilfree]

Our electric to charge the RAV-EV is FREE, because we already paid for our solar rooftop system with money we saved from NOT buying gasoline for over 500,000 miles on EV1, RangerEV, HondaEV, and Toyota RAV4-EV.

[gabe2552]

it the way to think...thank you

[TheNextBigThing2014]

ive always wanted to consider buying a electric as a second car, and wondered about the cost difference in my electric bill. what part of the world do you live in

[liveoilfree]

For the average drive of 1000 miles per month, it takes 250 kWh on average; that's about a third of the use of the average home, about what two old beerboxes use. It can be generated by a 1.3 kW solar system, 6 to 12 sq. yards, or about 9' by 12'.

[seaplaneguy1]

liveoilfree,

Do you have more details on "electric" ecomomy of a plug in Prius or whatever you were quoting?

1000 miles/ 250 kwh times 34 kw-hr/gallon = 136 miles/ gallon.

Do you have it for 30 mph, 50 mph 70 mph and stop and go city driving?

[milofonbil]

A couple of points.

1) When making your mpg claims, do you consider the energy equivalent of your electricity. GGE mpg = miles driven / (gallons of gas + (kWh charged / 33.5 kWh per gallon gas)

2) 70 cents per gallon @ 10 cents per kWh?

Your electricity costs you $3.35 per GGE. Are you counting your increase in efficiency?

[gabe2552]

I get my electricity from a rooftop. that doesnt cost a thing. I wish my prius would be plug in already.