EDrive Plans to Pioneer Electric Hybrids

[jkash]

Officially, they weren't really part of the 11th National Clean Cities Conference last week in Palm Springs. Unofficially, they were the stars of the show. After all, how often do you get to ride in a five-passenger car that is capable of doing 164 mpg?

The engineer/entrepreneurs at Energy CS in Monrovia, California were given the opportunity to modify a second Toyota Prius so that it too could run longer in electric-only mode. They converted their first Prius earlier this year, proving that it is possible to improve upon what is already a remarkably efficient machine. That car had its debut at the 21st Electric Vehicle Symposium in Monaco last month. The first Toyota Prius made a similar bow at EVS 14 back in 1997; and when it did, automotive history changed forever.

http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=ar...cle&storyid=849

[Robert Taylor]

Think about it. When did you first see car alarms? Remote door openers? These were automotive aftermarket items that the automotive companies picked up and added as standard equipment because they realized that the marketplace was providing features that they were not.

So, what may happen is that these modifications are going to be done by a number of automotive shops around the country, then Toyota will adopt some variation of these same modifications as standard equipment.

The very idea that some tweaking and minimal equipment changes in the Prius triples its mileage is astounding in and of itself.

Car companies DO pay attention to what people are doing in the aftermarket (and talking about on forums).

Should Energy CS manage to sell several plug-in Prii, then Toyota will be much more likely to respond sooner rather than later.

Rumour has it they are already working on a plug-in hybrid of their own anyway. At this stage the only thing holding back the technology is the cost of the batteries - nothing else.