Plugin but without adding batteries??

[kiwibruce]

Stupid question time...
I am a newbie here but I have searched the forums but never seen anything about this.

Has anyone ever done ( ot thought of doing) a PHEV conversion but just adding a plugin ability for the existing battery.
The reason I ask is I live in New Zealand so we are fortunate to have the EV button factory installed (Never seen a clear answer why they are not in NA)
My Scenario.
I live very close to town, (less than a mile or so) I can easily drive there on EV mode. But If I do that half way home the battery is down to 2 bars and the ICE kicks in and EV mode is disabled until the battery is charged up again.
Which takes quite a bit of ICE driving or quite a few hills. Which I don't normally do for a few days.
My wish is to be able to simply charge the battery up to 8 bars to start with.
Of course I would love a Hymotion style conversion but with the New Zealand Dollar currently worth 50c to the USD it is never going to be affordable down here. So... I look for other ways to get the most 'EV' out of my Prius.

Am I crazy? or has anyone ever thought about this... Tell me they have
Yes I know, like any PHEV conversion Toyota would dis-own me.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Bruce

[nerfer]

It would have limited appeal because of the short range. It sounds like it would work for you, but I think the market isn't big enough for a 3rd party to introduce the charging hardware & whatever other changes they need to make.

I believe Hymotion and other plug-in companies only recharge their own battery, they don't charge the existing traction (HV) battery, that one functions as Toyota set it up, and they fake out the system so the electric power first comes from the new battery pack. Once that's depleted, it's back to the normal system. I'm not sure anybody's looked into how easy or hard it is to recharge only the Toyota traction battery. There has been some solar panel conversions that charge up the small 12V battery, but there's debate on how effective that is.

[kiwibruce]

Thanks for the reply You made a really good point it would involve touching Toyota's battery which as you point out the other PHEV solutions avoid for very good reasons. Just thought it was worth a discussion

I agree it would have very limited market. But... then wouldn't everyone get a MPG boost if they started the day on 8 bars?
Maybe it is just me... but it seems to be a rare event for my car to get to 8 bars, It take a really big set of hills to do it. and them it seems to not take that long to be back to 6 again (seems to be the norm)
But I am still learning the car as I just brought it 3 weeks ago, 2nd hand.

[JimboK]

Originally Posted by kiwibruce

Maybe it is just me... but it seems to be a rare event for my car to get to 8 bars, It take a really big set of hills to do it. and them it seems to not take that long to be back to 6 again (seems to be the norm)

No, it's not just you; it's everyone. It's unusual to see 8 bars because the car is programmed to aim for 6 bars as an optimal level. This allows headroom for upcoming opportunities for regeneration -- such as hills. Otherwise, that energy would be wasted. Then when it hits 8 bars it uses that energy at its first opportunity -- again to make room for more -- until SOC (state of charge) settles in again at 6 or so.

[patsparks]

I ofen park my car with 7 bars so a plug in charger would have little value.

[kiwibruce]

Thanks Jim for the explanation on why I so rarely see 8 bars, Makes sense now that you explain it.
But it makes me want to be able to charge up to 8 bars even more!

[patsparks]

You know a Prius with 8 bars charge uses more gas don't you?

[kiwibruce]

Hi patsparks,

No, I didin't know that, How come is there a thread that explains that

[JimboK]

Originally Posted by kiwibruce

No, I didin't know that, How come is there a thread that explains that

It is addressed in many threads, but it boils down to this: For maximum fuel economy, avoid using the battery. (I know, it seems counterintuitive.) All energy ultimately comes from the ICE, whether to move the vehicle or recharge the battery. Best from a fuel economy standpoint is to use as much of that energy as possible to move the vehicle. That avoids the inevitable losses as energy is converted from one form to another -- i.e., kinetic energy from the moving vehicle converted to electrical energy converted to stored chemical energy in the battery, then reversal of the process to use that energy.

Now, on the other hand, if a plug-in was practical without adding batteries, that would change the picture. But as Nerfer suggests, range would be too short and the battery control algorithm likely too complex to make that viable.

[aminorjourney]

Jimbo,

For what it's worth you probably wouldn't want to spend the money on a charger (mine cost me £600GBP) specifically designed for the Prius battery pack without having another battery to put the power into.

I'm doing a three battery setup - this should give me about 10 miles EV range. The cost should be about £2,000 GBP in total. I'd advise saving up and getting more than one battery!

Nikki.