People Who Have Purchased the Enginer PHEV conversion kit!!

I have been following the evolution of Plug-in conversion kits for quite a while. Hymotion and Plug-In Supply were still to pricy for me.

I am so excited to have been able to find the Enginer PHEV conversion kit on Ebay so well designed and so cheap...yes. CHEAP!!! $1995 FOR THE 2KW KIT AND JUST $995 MORE FOR THE 4KW KIT.

I bought the kit about a week ago. Should be getting it in about another 10 days. If you have purchased the kit, have you installed it yet? How many of us are out there? I saw about 6 of us so far. :welcome:

JOANNA

You can count me in. I got the 4kw unit. It should arrive before yours, since I ordered last week. Hey, I plan to be one of installers and test pilot. How about you?

Yes, I am going to be an Enginer data compiler (test pilot):mod:. Lets plug-in!!!

I am meeting with Jack on August 14th in Long Beach CA to witness an installation of the kit with my brother who owns a shop here in Salt Lake City. I'm sure I will be the first PHEV Prius owner in all of Utah. Cool eh? Can't wait!!

JOANNA

Hey, which unit did you get? 2kw or 4kw?

I purchased the 4KW kit. For the price, can't beat it!!

Let me know when you get yours.

JOANNA

I'll be getting a 2kWh and upgrading to the 4 kwh as soon as the other unit comes in. EngineR is only a 10 minute drive from my house. I'll be anxious to hear what others have to say about the unit and their experience.

Cool! That means you will be able to get yours installed before the rest of us. Let us know how it goes.

JOANNA

Hey everyone,

I think I am going to Twitter this thing when I get it. What do you think? I go by the name "moonfresh" on Twitter. I plan to tweet this everytime I use it, like everyday. Will be tweeting pretty soon.

I wish I understood Twitter a little better. Logging your experience with the Enginer modification would be very informative to those who like to "tweet".

JOANNA

I purchased the 4kh kit and will be installing it myself. If all goes well, I will be upgrading to 8kw. If I am not able to plug in at work, I might go as high as 12kw. I hope to be PHEV by the end of August.

I'm in the Detroit area too and have a 2kWh unit on order. Per an email from Jack it should ship around Aug 14 out of SF. Hoping for it to arrive and be installed sooner, but if nothing changes I hope to be running on it by Aug 21. I'm signed up to be a tester as well.

I tried ebay for plug in kit and found nothing Where can it be found (engineer phev that is )

It is enginer, but just use PHEV as your search term in eBay and it will come up.

Those that get the kits - promise me lots of pictures and YouTube videos.

This method of supplying juice to the traction battery, the KISS'ness of it, appeals greatly to me. I've always thought that the Hymotion method was over-engineered.
Like spoofing the packets and/or simulating a no-gas situation.

8KW!! whew!! where will it all fit?

Let me know how it goes.

JOANNA

That will be almost 10 thousand in an experimental PHEV equipment. I think that there are better options for almost the same amount of money

Actually, it is only $2500 in experimental PHEV equipment. If it works as advertized, it will no longer be experimental. The upgrade to 12kw would only cost an additional $4500. At that point, the investment would be $7000 in proven PHEV equipment.

Care to elaborate on the better options?

The "proven PHEV equipment" is yet to be analyzed..........
Some of the better options would be better/larger AH discharge batteries, going into 100 or even 200AH cells.
This types will render an overall lighter weight and less physical room to spread, lesser equipment to charge and maintain, and basically more economic.
How many battery carriers are you willing to transport for 12Kw @ 40AH modules?
Don't think that Enginer Co. will keep the low battery price for their 40AH for to long. It sound more than an "Introductory price" but it would be great that they will supply other options than the 40AH as I mention before.

Agreed. I hope to have some data beginning in September.

Agreed, larger cells tend to be smaller and lighter than the equivalent AH in smaller cells, but smaller cells can be arranged more efficiently in the available space. Also, if you lose a 40AH cell, it's much less cost to replace. I think the pros/cons of large vs small are a wash.

Well actually just one. For 12kw you would need 24 of the 12V packs (4 cells per pack). Six packs will fit in the spare tire well, two will fit in the area opposite of the 12V battery and the remaining sixteen will fit in the Enginer battery carrier (based on scaled pictures so not entirely sure) if you stand the batteries upright and move the converter and charger out of the carrier. Since the batteries will then be too tall to fit under the floorboard, a custom floorbooard will be required. I think I can handle that. The converter(s) and charger(s) can be mounted to the new floorboard. Yes, I would have reduced truck space. I can handle that. The total weight will be around 400 lbs. I believe that the Plug-in supply PbA kit weighs in at 500 lbs for 5kw and the BMS+ weighs about 300 lbs for 2.6 kw. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Even if this is an introductory price, the 40AH cells are available for $68 each at Elite Power Solutions. They actually have some nice EV kits for motorcycles that would work well with the Enginer.us concept. At $68 each, I can buy 8kw for for $4352. Enginer.us sells the BMoS (Battery Monitoring System) for $60 each so I would need 8 more, $480. Throw in another charger and the upgrade would still cost under $5000, or $4000 if Enginer.us holds the pricing.

How does the BMS work in telling you which cell should be replaced?

Or do you charge the pack, then use a meter on each cell measuring voltage? In my experience, it's hard to judge how many amps in a rechargeable AA battery that's near-death when it still reports the same voltage as usual, but dies quickly.

IOW, going to such a PHEV system, is it worthwhile getting a better tester?