Toyota has plans to offer Prius 2010 Lithium battery upgrade ??

[spiderman]

Originally Posted by iFreedom45

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

From what I understand, the Prius 2010 will use allot more gasoline to warm up the engine everytime you drive short distances (stop and go all the time).

I drive 3 km (1.9 miles) to go to work 3 times a day = (6 trips a day). I will also use the car allot in the city 80-90% of the time for short drives.

My old Toyota Matrix 2003 was rated at 6.9l/100km by EPA, but I was actually doing more like 10l to 12l/100km (1gallon=4.5l), because I was driving short distances all the time (stop and go) .

I would really prefer a car that can do more distances on electric only. This would probably be cheaper on gas, and this is the point of buying a hybrid car.. right !

By the way, from what I read, the GM volt is an electric car with a gasoline engine that is used to recharge the batteries when they are depleted at more than 50%.

Dan

It really sounds like a straight EV would be best for you. Many here with short trips around town (<3 miles) are getting rather poor performance from their new Prius due to what you mentioned; engine warm up. Over longer distances, this averages out but you won't get that. I would (IMO) wait for the Leaf assuming you will have plug-in at each end of your trip. The Volt is likely to be too expensive.
Peter

[Jim Calvert]

I have not heard a word about when a plug-in version of the Prius might be available. It could be several years away, if ever. Of course you could have one right now if are willing to spend as high as $15,000 to have an after-market company do a conversion for you - thus voiding your Prius warranty.

On the other hand the Chevy Volt is still not being produced, may not become available for several more years, and will cost more than $40,000 unless GM lowers the cost and sells them at a considerable loss.

My solution: use my Zenn all-electric car for short errands on city streets and use my Prius for everything else.

[jangell2]

Originally Posted by iFreedom45

I would really prefer a car that can do more distances on electric only. This would probably be cheaper on gas, and this is the point of buying a hybrid car.. right !

By the way, from what I read, the GM volt is an electric car with a gasoline engine that is used to recharge the batteries when they are depleted at more than 50%.

Dan

When I first read your post I missed the point that you wanted to go electric as much as possible, so I see the points that have been made since then.

I was also not aware that the Volt could charge the battery, that would make it more practical for longer, away from home trips. Of course the volt is going to cost around $40K so even if it were available today, I would have chosen the Prius.

I hope that in the near future, cars with the Volt's mpg can be made more economical.

[rlr66]

Originally Posted by iFreedom45

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know if Toyota has any plans to offer Prius 2010 customer a Lithium battery upgrade kit in the near future ?

I know the car just came out, but I am debating if I should wait for the Volt, Nissan Leaf or the upcoming Prius PlugIn or go for the Prius 2010.

The Prius 2010 only has a 1.6km rang on EV mode (battery mode) and this is really not enough for me as I do 90% of the time in city driving with very short distances.

I would need a car than could do more on battery alone, such as the upcoming Volt which is advertised, but I am really interested in buying the Prius 2010 NOW !!.


Do you guys know if Toyota or A123 systems will come out with such an upgrade soon ?

Thanks,
Dan

I don't believe in buying the first generation of anything, especially electronics. Look at the improvements made from the first generation Prius to now. Gen I had AC that would shut off in EV mode. In Florida that would be rough. Also, we are talking about GM. I'd put more faith on the Nissan - although not by much. I had a bad experience with an Altima that the company would not help with - which is why I ordered my Prius. Let them work the bugs out first.

[Airbalancer]

At 3 km to work, walking or bike riding is possible the best way to go

[anne1965]

Originally Posted by ksstathead

jangell2, be aware that braking is still a waste of energy, just not of all the energy, as some of it (30%?) makes it back to the battery during regen braking. All of the energy is lost when braking under 7 mph and in emergency stops, since compression braking is used.

Due to the law of kinetic energy e=½mv², the energy you loose by not regeneratively braking below 7 mph is very small, about 1/15 of the energy extracted from the deceleration from 30 mph down to 7 mph.

I figured the roundtrip efficiency of regenerative braking would be closer to 50%, I remember once having read about measurements coming close to that same figure: 50%. Have you got any reference for that 30% figure of yours?

Emergency stops are exceptional (I hope!!!), so that will not really impact the usefulness of regenerative braking in day-to-day usage.

[zcat3]

Have you thought of getting a slightly used Gen II Prius and then adding a Hymotion kit? You could probably have a pretty loaded nearly new PHEV for 30K or so. With an EV mode switch, you would be able to go 15 - 20 miles in all EV mode on each charge. I have a 2008 Prius with this setup and drive around my town using no gas.

[3PriusMike]

Originally Posted by rlr66

I don't believe in buying the first generation of anything, especially electronics. Look at the improvements made from the first generation Prius to now. Gen I had AC that would shut off in EV mode. In Florida that would be rough. Also, we are talking about GM. I'd put more faith on the Nissan - although not by much. I had a bad experience with an Altima that the company would not help with - which is why I ordered my Prius. Let them work the bugs out first.

I'm not sure where you got this idea...but I have a Gen I, Gen II and Gen III. I can tell you that the Gen I does not shut off the A/C when you are in EV mode...technically, there isn't even an EV mode at all. There is what some call stealth mode where, with light pedal or a downhill slope, you can be running on electric only, just like with the Gen II and Gen III. But the A/C and all accessories stay on.

There is actually very little difference in how the hybrid drive works. Most of the improvements have to do with more efficiently doing the cold-start warm-up cycle from a driver's perspective. From an engineering perspective Toyota has made the components smaller, cheaper to build and providing more power. And they've made the battery more compact at about the same power rating.

I got my Gen I the first month they were sold. There were 4 or 5 minor recalls to bring it in on the next (paid for) maintenance to fix something that might be a problem. The most problem free car I ever owned. Zero maintenance dollars except for scheduled maintenance, two flat tires and one set of new tires. My Gen II also has had zero maintenance, except scheduled maintenance and one set of tires.

3PriusMike

[3PriusMike]

Originally Posted by iFreedom45

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know if Toyota has any plans to offer Prius 2010 customer a Lithium battery upgrade kit in the near future ?

There are no such known plans. There have been hints that there will be a Prius Plug-in in a year os so, but that it will be limited to fleet sales.

But assume you were Toyota and you did have a PHEV ready for sale. Would you offer to upgrade all the 2010 models? No, because your battery supply would be limited and you'd rather sell an entire car with each Li-ion battery because this would give you more profit.

3PriusMike

[anne1965]

Isn't the plug-in Prius is more than a battery upgrade? I would think it needs at least electric heating. More powerful electronics? Better cooling of MG2? More powerful MG2?