What's coming this year for PHEV conversion?

[Organik]

Hi everybody - I'm new here. Just got a 2008 and I absolutely love it. Researching PHEV conversions and the PICC conversion looks the best right now but man is it pricey! Any opinions as to emerging battery technology, prices coming down? If I wait a year will I be able to pay much less for a much better conversion? Speculation is of course welcome.

Thanks!

[dan2l]

Originally Posted by Organik

Hi everybody - I'm new here. Just got a 2008 and I absolutely love it. Researching PHEV conversions and the PICC conversion looks the best right now but man is it pricey! Any opinions as to emerging battery technology, prices coming down? If I wait a year will I be able to pay much less for a much better conversion? Speculation is of course welcome.

Thanks!

Hi Organik,
I think the Enginer system will push everyone to be more cost effective. Enginer is the cheapest today and probubly will not drop in price because they are working so hard to improve their system.

I do expect other PHEV kits will need to approach the Enginer cost in the future to stay viable in the marketplace.

I have a 4kwhr Enginer system and 2 more on order. Be sure to ask each cotributor what system they have. It is important to reallize that each of us is prejudiced toward our own system.

Thanks,
Dan

[linuxpenguin]

Originally Posted by Organik

Hi everybody - I'm new here. Just got a 2008 and I absolutely love it. Researching PHEV conversions and the PICC conversion looks the best right now but man is it pricey! Any opinions as to emerging battery technology, prices coming down? If I wait a year will I be able to pay much less for a much better conversion? Speculation is of course welcome.

Thanks!

Howdy,

Yes the PHEV world is exciting, isn't it ?

I have a PICC kit in my car and so yes I can vouch for its general awesomeness (and its associated price tag...). You get what you pay for in this industry though.

Price is only one piece of the puzzle--after all, these conversions won't save you money today (or for that matter for the life of the car most likely). Unless gas hits $8 you can pretty much forget about seeing a return on any PHEV system unless you are a crazy / wicked good hypermiler (I happen to believe that it will hit $8 a gallon soon, not sure if it will happen before I get a new car or not though).

No, like I say so many times (sorry everyone who has to hear me say it again), we convert our cars to reduce dependency on foreign oil, dependency on fossil fuels, and to reduce overall emissions and not to save money. (I know you weren't complaining about prices in general, but I always like to remind people why we do these things).

That said, I'm sure Plugin Conversions is working to get costs down but this takes time and scale to do.

As for battery breakthroughs (in general to the battery industry), there are some promising battery technologies on the horizon promising up to 10 times the capacity of modern batteries, but I wouldn't hold my breath just yet. Anything that is discovered today will likely take 5 years at least to become fully researched, developed, tested, certified and mass produced.

For now, Lithium and Nickle Metal are the best things on the market--both having their strengths and weaknesses (density, weight, temperature tolerance, internal resistance, cost, etc).

Andrew

[scottsim]

My first post here...

In a couple of days, will be taking my 2009 Prius for the 10KWh package from the folks at 3prongpower. Still debating if I need to get the CanView monitoring system. I will post reviews, data and pics later...Was early in the line to get an Aptera...but hey the reality of that EV hitting the road looked too distant.

Scott

[Organik]

Originally Posted by scottsim

My first post here...

In a couple of days, will be taking my 2009 Prius for the 10KWh package from the folks at 3prongpower. Still debating if I need to get the CanView monitoring system. I will post reviews, data and pics later...Was early in the line to get an Aptera...but hey the reality of that EV hitting the road looked too distant.

Scott

Ha! I bought a 2008 Prius because I was sick of waiting for Aptera too! Still have my reservation though...even though now I can't afford the car...if it's ever even manufactured.

[Creekside]

I'm another low number Aptera reservation holder that jumped into a PHEV after losing faith that Aptera was for real about delivering a car to it's customers in the next couple of years. So far my PICC conversion 2007 prius works like a dream. Yes, it is an expensive conversion, but it is also the most thought out, evolved, and reliable system out there. Everyone has to make the decision of what conversion they desire based on their needs and affordability. I think the PHEV conversion market is healthy; there are different options out there for different needs and price.

[mrbigh]

Originally Posted by Organik

Hi everybody - I'm new here. Just got a 2008 and I absolutely love it. Researching PHEV conversions and the PICC conversion looks the best right now but man is it pricey! Any opinions as to emerging battery technology, prices coming down? If I wait a year will I be able to pay much less for a much better conversion? Speculation is of course welcome.

Thanks!

Hello Organik, wellcome to the croud of the PHEVers.
One word of advise, please do not make your purchase decision only based on equipment pricing; the economic one is a game of parts troubleshooting, exchange of defective components and you will be subject to other people experimenting learning process misguidance.
Second, equipment materials and ease of installation; my advise is to have it profesionaly installed and properly tested. Do your digging on this one.
Third, also base your decission on manufacturer's reputation and warranty liability and customer service.
There are new companies that exchanged ownership with out a solid reputation and letting stranded rightfull equipment and vehicle owners.
The best luck to you on your educated decission.

PS
My PHEV conversion is based upon the Hybrid Interfaces line of products; it's a fully DIY equipment, very reasonable priced as a total PHEV package and a great one with full regeneration capture. Is is not an experimenter's type of system, I may indicate that once it's builded and assembled in the vehicle, will work forever with out maintenance.
Another link for PHEV companies will be: EEtrex, former Colorado's Hybrid's Plus, one of the innovators in the early PHEV conversions days, with hundreds of installs, mostly to government institutions.

[scottsim]

This is the site for photos, reviews of my conversion: www.smilingdogsranch.com/priusblog

[linuxpenguin]

Originally Posted by scottsim

This is the site for photos, reviews of my conversion: smilingdogsranch.com/priusblog

Interesting. It looks like they have switched from Thunder-sky batteries to Sky-Energy batteries. Sky energy still uses the Thunder-sky chemistry of course since they are partner companies--they primarily make batteries for the Chinese military is my understanding.

I'm still curious how they can claim 50 miles of EV range while using only 60% of a ~35 mile system. I'd be interested to see real-world results from your system.

Andrew

[Flying White Dutchman]

i wonder what the price is for the system