What's an Enginer like to drive?

That's right, although there's a mix of bettery/converter systems out there being used. 5kw is just about enough to maintain 30mph so long as you have no hills, so really useful in the city. I'd be interested in how a gen3 with two converters behaved on the highway.

 

We just got our 07 Prius converted (picked it up two weeks ago?) using a 4kW Enginer system and I'm only now learning the ins and outs. It helps to drive around your regular routes and see where the Prius kicks you out of EV mode. If it does so because it's depleted the battery, I find places near there to pull over and do other things (calls, texts, reading, playing games on my iPod touch) while the Enginer system trickles power back into the battery. It'll get it up to 6 bars pretty quickly, and much longer up to the full 8 (green). I almost never let it get to green because I usually don't have that kind of time.

One thing I do when I come home is let the system stay on (and the car "running" in EV mode) and then the Enginer system will recharge your OEM battery enough so when you take it out again, the battery will be charged enough for you to get somewhere in EV mode.

It has quirks and a break-in period that we're still moving through. I'm thinking about getting a Scan Gauge...the company that converted our car is willing to let us borrow one for a while too.

Our MPGs are definitely much better than they would be without it, even in what ReGo calls "blended" mode (which is the regular Prius system with the juice boost from the system). The engine cuts out sooner than the 5 (or 10 in winter) minutes for the engine to warm up, and gets into EV mode pretty quickly and easily.

Looking forward to hearing how things are going for you!

Jeanne

 

Hi Floyd2
Have your enginer kit installed? I'm waiting your news of installation & test drives.
thanks
advantina

 

He's been doing some updating about his system and install over on the Enginer customer forums.
http://www.enginer.us/forum/index.php

 

Hi Advantina,

It is freezing cold over here so I do a little bit every day. On Saterday I did all the wiring at the front. Yesterday the HV cable in the back and if all goes well I will put the kit in the back on Monday and maybe make my first testdrive.

Floyd

 

The enginer forum is full of spam recently. I can't find the updated news of Flody2.

It's a tough work to install the kit alone In freezing climate. Even in Taiwan, the temperature has dropped to below 10 deg C in these days. Do not want too many activities. The Lithium & stocky OEM battery are also bothered by very low temperature. Both the performance & capacity of charging & discharging are all lowered.

I just have my prius total grill block yesterday. it's easy removable by Velcro. I will observe the temp of engine by SGII in future highway drive.

 

Yes it's minus 8C today, and moving round large blocks of sharp metal is not such a good idea! I'm hoping to get a working BMS soon and then i'll be able to tell you what it's really like.

 

I was bussy yesterday and today Advantine. Together with a friend we put the kit in the back of the Prius (not bolted down yet) and I already made a first testdrive at -8 Celsius (17 F.) this evening.
Unbelievable: 2.6 l/100km (90 mpg) on a stretch of 46 km (29 miles)! If it works this well in the freezing cold it should be even better in the summertime.
I drove at low speeds between 30 and 65 km/h over a stretch of 46 km, the red led did not come on and the display indicates there is still 12% left in the Enginer batteries. But I use grill blocking and I turned on the EV switch as much as possible. Just to see what the best mileage was that I could get. So this is not a good impression of a real life situation, just an example of what is possible at best.



The converter output was around 14 amps. And at a steady pace of 37 km/h I could drive pure EV for more then 8 km and the SOC remained at 6 bars. But then it got so cold in the car (ICE is off) that I had to switch EV off or I would freeze to death.

I am really very happy with the way the kit works. :cheer2:

 

Wow! 2.6 is an exciting and encouraging mileage for 4kwh enginer kit. You wait patiently for 4 months is worth it. I also think that it should be better in warmer season. Besides the full grill block, To sticky the dumping pad & insulating cotton over the inner side of front hood and the interior of prius trunk can give you a more quiet and warm situation.

 

I've had my 4kwh kit for two weeks now. I did the install myself. The key was to take my time. Mounting takes some thought - I'm still not happy with how mine is secured.

Driving is a blast though. I'm averaging over 75mpg and getting 5-8 EV miles without a problem. One key seems to be to let the ICE warm up first. It allows more time in EV upto 41 MPH. Accelerating with the ICE saves the battery and more juice is available to maintain speed. It requires very little electricity to hold 37mph.

No technical problems yet.

David

 

Nice milegae David.

I noticed that as well, it depends a little under what circumstances but I noticed that between 8 and 15 Amps I can maintain a speed of around 37 mph supported for a few miles by the electric motor only. This only works if the ICE has gone though the warmup cycles.

This tank full my mileage will be a lot less than the previous, I had to do a few streches of highway this time. At the moment around 65 mpg which still isn't bad for this time of year.

No technical problems either, knock on wood.

 

I'm interested in this product, but have hesitations after reading their FAQ's page where I noticed numerous grammar errors which is usually a red flag. I hope it's just an innocent oversight on their part. Is this a reputable and trustworthy company?

 

Trustworthy, kind of, reputable, no. If you're not interested in electronics and learning how the system works (or are incredibly lucky like floyd here!) it will be a major headache. If i was in america i would go for the plug in supply or picc setup.

 

I would say that the company is reputable. I have personally spoken to Jack Chen, the guy in charge, and he is truly passionate about getting this system out to the public and helping the world.

Enginer has always followed through and offered replacement parts whenever there has been a quality problem. Always. Sometimes it takes a while though so a lot of patience is required.

When it works, it works great. When it isn't working, then it will take time and effort to troubleshoot the problem. Plus the waiting time for the part. This can, understandably, be frustrating.

In the meantime your hybrid will run just fine.

For people who want a system that they can set-it-and-forget-it, this may not be the one for you quite yet. But it's getting closer.

After working on about 20 of these I have finally gotten one installed that has not needed any service for over two months. He got 82 mpg and 87 mpg on his last two tanks.

Full Disclosure: I install this system as well as do other hybrid repair battery work.

 

Eric, thank you for being so honest.
I don't understand the problem rate. If there are 5 major sub-components to the system and 19/20 have required replacement parts, I grossly estimate 20% of sub-components are defective from the factory.

That just seems hard to believe unless the system demands are way outside manufacturing spec, leading to early failures.

 

I don't find 20% failure rate hard to believe at all. The quality of components are poor. the components are cheap. you get what you pay for!

I have a good converter and a good charger. i had a bad bms (and the design is not very good so this one has had problems as well) and bad batteries.

 

I am still *really* skeptical, but if true then how come Enginer is not testing the components before shipping ? Presumably Enginer is paying at least half if not all the shipping fees to replace bad components, and that is before we consider the hassle and customer ill-will.

 

I guess the Enginer product is not what I should be looking at then. I had no idea there was such a high failure rate. Probably best for me to wait until Toyota releases their own plug-in Prius. But dang, I hate having car payments again! Not to mention the higher sales tax and DMV fees.

 

Good question.

They are shutting down private sales so they can focus on only working with a few installers and improving product quality. That kind of deals with all the above problems, since installers can keep local inventory, can combine return shipments of faulty parts, and give sensible concise field reports about failures and issues.

I think two more product iterations may do it. The BMS probably has sufficient functionality (though i would like top balancing/shunting added), but the fuse holders need changing and the boards need to be manufactured by machine, not hand (the surface mount components are kind of wonky), heatsinks need adding and active cooling needs to run when it's balancing. then that is sorted.

The batteries will be ok once the BMS is solid, but the enclosure is not great. proper busbars and compression should be used, and the connections for power and BMS should be more robust.

The charger works, but is slow. The batteries can probably accept more power, so maybe this could be improved.

The converter generates a lot of waste heat (that could be improved). this is not heatsinked very well, and the internal construcion again needs better PCB manufacture with better tolerances. a more effective cooling design will increase it's lifespan.

The idea and theory of the product is great, and you can get brilliant results, it's just not built to automotive grade.

 

How is it the limitation of EV mode to have to go under 34km/h when the cooling liquid is under 69C, have you hacked the temp sensor?