Toyota salesman had warned me about this kit. Installing this kit will void the factory warranty.

:hurt:

Even though I like the product, I will rather wait for a 2010 plugin Prius.

Interesting...

... However, without the ability to switch to full-electric for x-miles on start-up, I don't really see how this will help extend the gas-mileage of a current Prius. I know my first 4-5 miles are at 25mpg or so and the battery is being recharged during this time due to the ICE use.

Am I missing something here?

GCBloke, No I dont think you are missing a thing. It's all about hydrocarbons into the air and not so much at this point about saving you any money or gas. Unless of course you only work a few miles from home! In Florida, NOBODY works that close to home anymore. a 200 mile battery charge would take me easily to work and home with stop off for groceries on the side. But anything less and I'm burning gasoline.

The article says about half of the conversion would have problems. That is a little scary for a none electrical guy like me. The possible loss of factory warrantee, will keep me from being the first kid on the block to do the conversion.

But I don't see where it would take 8 years to make up the $10,000 added cost at $4.00 plus per gallon cost of gasoline. How often will we have to change the oil, since we would not be putting very many miles on the gas engine. Wouldn't there be added resale value to consider. Like the Prius is getting for being a hybrid? I actually made money when I sold my 2004 Prius when I figured the saving of the gas. And that was before the gas prices really went up.

"Any plug-in hybrid, whether created using an aftermarket conversion kit or built by a major automaker — like General Motors’ Saturn Vue Hybrid expected for 2009, and Chevrolet Volt expected in 2010 — would cost roughly 2 cents per mile to run, compared with about 10 cents per mile for a traditional car, says Philip Gott, director of automotive consulting at research firm Global Insight.
It would take 8 years to pay off the $10,000 premium of an electric system driving 40 miles a day and saving 8 cents per mile, Gott says, which is longer than most people want to own a car. "But people buy these things to make an environmental statement," he says."


10 cents per mile for an average car??!!! Is this new math?

At 25 mpg for the average car in fuel alone at $4.10 gallon it is 16.4 cents per mile. And thats not counting oil change costs, more frequent brake pad changes, etc that are associated with an average ICE car (and not counting wear/tear, depreciation, and insurance also but lets assume those equal between electric and ICE cars for now).

Philip Gott is a total idiot, or rather I hope he was just misquoted.

The person quoted in the article, Art Spinella, has a history of saying erroneous things, many against the Prius and hybrids in general. He has claimed that the Prius is less environmentally friendly than a Hummer. He is basically a shill for the status quo seekers in Detriot.

see http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/30974-prius-vs-hummer-exploding-myth.html

These after-market hybrid conversions are sound and for those that want to spend the money, they are a great thing.

Our Prii are currently running at about 9 cents per mile .

JeffD

If the electricity was free, $10,000 at $4/gallon will buy you 125,000 miles at 50 MPG. If you drive ~16,000 miles per year, it would take 8 years. Now, add the cost of the electricity (13.5 cents per KWH here). How many KW does it take to drive a 'modified' Prius 125,000 miles?

Thanks anyway. I'll wait until Toyota does it as part of the product, it won't add $10K to the cost. Plus, they will HAVE to give us an EV switch AND allow at least 50 MPH in EV

I'm on the list, happy to be an early adopter and looking forward to having my L5 pack installed in October. Art Spinella can spout all the Pro-Detroit BS he wants...it won't change my mind about getting the Hymotion mod one bit. I'm not concerned about the "pay-back" period, I think it is cool to be among the first to have a 100-150mpg PHEV!

Good man! I wish I could do it too...

Mine is shipped to the installer in November (at least that's the prediction).
I expect to keep my Prius until it dies. That may be after I do. I've got 79k miles on mine now (80k in 3 years). However, my driving will be less as I get older (only 67 now). My last two cars had over 200k miles on them, and they were a Taurus wagon and a Geo Metro. I certainly think the Prius can do better than that, especially since I'm using synthetic and doing oil testing every 5k miles now.

Dave M.

Dave, I know this is an aside to the main topic, but if you change your oil with synthetic every 5,000 miles (like I do) what will the oil testing tell you? Thanks, Steve

the kit would provide 100% of daily driving needs without a drop of gasoline. looking at driving history for the month of June, i would have burned half a tank of gasoline (having 4 birthdays, 2 high school graduations and one college graduation in the month) but in a normal month, i would be filling up once every 3-4 months instead of once every 10-13 days.

but, i am looking at other emerging options. 100% EV will be available at highway speeds in about a year from multiple sources... it will be interesting who emerges on top. i predict a whole new league of players being overwhelmed by demand. interesting to see what major corporation will be buying into the technology.

it pretty much seems that no one is even interested in pursuing the technology on their own... gm must either have some sort of inside info on the EV1 or are MUCH more dense than i could have ever imagined.

another thing that amazes me is that short range, low speed vehicles have a rapidly growing niche market that is currently be serviced by very small independent companies, none of which i see being able to supply anywhere near the current demand and that demand is growing daily, and once again, big business is ignoring this trend...

"it pretty much seems that no one is even interested in pursuing the technology on their own... gm must either have some sort of inside info on the EV1 or are MUCH more dense than i could have ever imagined"

The smart money is on the later not the former!

Am I the only one who caught the title

turn ANY CAR into a plug in hybrid.

Bad reporting? Or do some of these kits come with an electric motor to tie in with the car?

Yeah, I thought it was going to be about the Poulsen Hybrid.

see Home

One of the links indicated a kit that added electric motors to the rear wheels.

Dave M.