Can a Prius travel 1,100 miles on a tank of gas?

[zenMachine]

A PC member will certainly try...

Palm Beach County Toyota dealership owner Earl Stewart will send off a driver in a modified hybrid Prius to embark on an 1,100-mile journey from North Palm Beach to Washington D.C. The goal: Prove a Prius (and hybrid technology) can make it there on one tank of 11.2 gallons of fuel - and loads of electricity.
A 2009 Prius has been modified with a A123 Hymotion Lithium battery, creating an electric, plug-in hybrid able to travel up to 40 miles without gas. Rick Kearney, a Hybrid-Certified Master Diagnostic Technician and Stewart employee, will do the hard work and drive to D.C. He plans on making the trip in 30 to 40-mile intervals, stopping to plug in for a few hours to recharge the battery before continuing on. Cost of recharging the battery is less than $1.
Want to follow along on the Web?
Facebook at Welcome to Facebook | Facebook, search for Earl Stewart Toyota
MySpace at Rick (Rick Kearney) | MySpace.com
Twitter Earl Stewart Toyota (EarlsToyota) on Twitter
YouTube at www.youtube.com/earlstewarttoyota
PriusChat: User name Bear 68 on www.priuschat.com

Consumer Talk | Sun-Sentinel Blogs: Can a Prius travel 1,100 miles on a tank of gas? Florida dealer will test

[TonyPSchaefer]

As most of us know already, unmodified Prii have traveled farther than 1,100 miles on a single tank.

[FireEngineer]

Take out the Hymotion pack and just drive it. Don't need those extra batteries for a road trip, too much weight. Besides, have the guy just ask TheForce about around town with a Hymotion pack, over 2,000 miles and he finally felt like filling up.

Wayne

[alevinemi]

It's obvious that by the way they designed his trip, with stops every 30-40 miles to recharge, they intend to do it almost all on electric, using next to no gas.

When it's over, they'll look at the tank and say "Wow! We only used half a gallon - that's 2,200 MPG!". The one tank is what they say now, then they trump it later for effect.

Of course, as a result, a really good bicycler could get to DC faster and not use any gas.

6 days/1100 miles = 183 miles per day. A well-conditioned (professional or just sub-pro conditioned) biker could pull that off.

-->Adam

Originally Posted by TonyPSchaefer

As most of us know already, unmodified Prii have traveled farther than 1,100 miles on a single tank.

[JimN]

Originally Posted by alevinemi

6 days/1100 miles = 183 miles per day. A well-conditioned (professional or just sub-pro conditioned) biker could pull that off.

-->Adam

I don't like this kind of publicity stunt because it paints the plug-in as "not ready for prime time". I'd be interested if they ran a 2010 alongside and had to complete the trip in 2 days.

The same thing happened in last year's rally. The plug in took an extra hour to complete the course.

[F8L]

I think it sounds rather ridiculous. Everyone is going to laugh because of the short distances and recharges. They should have came up with a better plan or simply modified the gas tank to hold more fuel.

[TheForce]

Originally Posted by FireEngineer

Take out the Hymotion pack and just drive it. Don't need those extra batteries for a road trip, too much weight. Besides, have the guy just ask TheForce about around town with a Hymotion pack, over 2,000 miles and he finally felt like filling up.

Wayne

Wayne, I have not filled up yet. I'm at about 1400 miles and don't plan on filling up until about the end of June or if I'm lucky the day before I head to Hybridfest.


I think this is a bad idea to promote the short range plug-in this way. Normal people wont want to take days just to travel a hundred miles or so unless that was the plan to begin with. I know I wont be stopping every 30-40 miles to recharge on my way to Hybridfest.

[toxicity]

Originally Posted by TheForce

Wayne, I have not filled up yet. I'm at about 1400 miles and don't plan on filling up until about the end of June or if I'm lucky the day before I head to Hybridfest.


I think this is a bad idea to promote the short range plug-in this way. Normal people wont want to take days just to travel a hundred miles or so unless that was the plan to begin with. I know I wont be stopping every 30-40 miles to recharge on my way to Hybridfest.

How long has it been since your last fill up? Are you worried at all about your gas going bad?

[Bob.H]

I drive a Prius for the economy of it. I don't see how this experiment shows bottom line economy.

With the cost of this Hymotion battery modification plus the cost of the electricity to charge it, I wonder if it would be any more economical over 100K miles vs. a stock Prius. How do you factor in the cost of the system failing over this period.

I would like to see this driven straight through. Only plugged in to eat and use the bathroom. With only one overnight stay in the middle of the trip. Repeat 91 times. That would be more realistic.

Then we could look at the data to see if it is economical for long trips since the premise of this is a 1100 mile trip.

[boxer93]

Jay touched on the point I was going to make. You use the electricity when you can and gas went you can't. That to me is what makes it a plugin hybrid. I can imagine how long it would have taken me to get to the Green Gran Prix on electricity alone.
I just drove it!
Chris