MN Hymotion L5 install

Interesting about the cancellations. I'm glad we got ours before the gas prices started to drop again ($2.99 a gallon today), because it might not have seemed worth it. And I absolutely LOVE mine, and only wish it were even bigger!

 

Okay... so what you guys do with the spare? I've not seen anyone explain that.

 

My spare is in my storage shed, but the can of fix-a-flat is in the car. I absolutely love the Hymotion. It changes the EV to work at almost any speed. It seems the engine starts at 32, but I can feather the gas and run on EV up to 50 MPH.

I only wish I had gotten it sooner, before the weather starts turning colder in Ohio.

---Kent

 

My spare is in the garage and I make sure my AAA and Toyota Roadside assistance are in effect.

 

I use : Image Resizer from Microsoft its for XP though to reduce the size of my pictures here is link..

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP

 

Lucky you. :welcome: I got mine early the same way. Someone else delayed their order and talked my way into getting bumped up on the list.

The ScanGauge II indicates that the engine is in idle at any speed around 34 mph or higher. The Prius screen may show only the battery being used to power the wheels, but the ICE is in idle between 950 RPM to 1,100 RPM. It is difficult to notice the vibration when you are moving at that speed, due to the road vibrations. But the ICE is running in idle.

I have found that at 55 mph w/cruise control on the highway, the ICE is basically at idle levels of power. Perhaps 1,100 RPM to 1,250 RPM. My SGII shows between 140 mpg to 180 mpg when it is flat and straight. I am typically drawing approximately 0.30 gallons per hour while doing 55 mph with cruise control.

Speeding up to 60 mph causes far more harm than you would think. There is clearly a sweet spot at 55 mph.

From my initial testing, the full Hymotion battery will last about 20 to 25 miles in pure EV mode at speeds of less than 34 mph.

At 60 mph on the highway with gas and Hymotion, the battery will last about 40 miles and provide around 90 to 100 mpg. There were some minor hills involved in my test, so that likely seriously hurt my range and my average mpg.

At 55 mph on the highway "TheForce" reported a range of 50 miles with a full battery. I think he actually had a flat and straight road test.

Hopefully you will have a location to charge at work to make sure you can have the L5 in effect for the entire trip both ways. 45 miles is going to be the edge of the battery range.

 

Hi Max,
Great to see another install, especially sooner than expected. I hope that not too many people drop out because of the economy.
As for the spare, I'm like ibcs. Eveything but the lug wrench is in the garage. Fix a flat or road service. Although I did find a piece of wood resting on top of the lower A arm when I was under the car trying to put in my EBH. I thought the roads around here were pretty good.
Enjoy,
Chris

 

Max,
Today I had my engine block heater installed on my Hymotion Prius.
I think that will be an improvement on the initial few miles to reduce the early gas consumption. I will be doing some testing in the next few mornings. I plan on putting it on a programmable timer to preheat my car for two hours before I leave. 6am to 8 am.

 

Thanks for the pics and details, very jealous!

Rob

 

I got 40 miles one way during my highway test at 60 mph. That was after about 3 or 4 recharges before I tried the test.

I got 22.5 miles in pure EV mode at speeds between 30 mph to 34 mph, no stoplights, no AC.

Those tests were both early without many deep cycles on the battery. I have had it over two weeks now, so it might be interesting to see if the battery range has improved after 10+ full cycles.

 

I rarely get 30Mi on a full charge. Most of my trips are 10Mi or less. Usually 25-27Mi. I do try to run on battery as much as possible. I also feel that the more hills I travel it uses more battery. Over the same commuting route I use more energy on the return trip which has the steepest hill (around 200ft climb in 3/4 Mi). I do believe with longer trips, flatter terrain or faster speeds the miles per charge would increase. I do not think that temps have a big effect yet. These numbers have not decreased with the temperature drop. Although it's still not consistently in the 30's f yet either
Chris

 

I would definitely recommend getting that grill blocked asap. Even here in Phoenix with winter temps in the 60s I found half blocking made a big difference. That will be much exaggerated in the PHEV, as the ICE runs much less often. Every time it cools down, its going to force it to run just to warm it back up. Blocking goes a long way to preserving the heat in the engine as long as possible.

Rob

 

My pack utilization is all over the place. I have emails into Hymotion about it. They asked that I do some analysis. When I first got the L5 in the end of Sept- i was able to commute 10 miles using 1.25KWH with ICE only running for emissions systems warm up.

The temperature was in the 70's in the end of September, it is in the 40s/50s now.

I dont have a ScangaugeII and don't plan on buying one for some time.

This is what I wrote to Hymotion support:

Voltage at the outlet that uses the 50 foot cord records over 119 volts. The outlet closer to the car using a 25 foot cord records 117 volts. I am using the outlet farther away that reports higher voltage at the outlet.

Here is what happened on 10/19 traveling 15 miles:

1.4 miles consumed first bar
5.4 miles consumed second bar
9 miles consumed third bar
13 miles consumed fourth bar

The ICE put power to the wheels often which I attribute to ambient air temperature. Placing even the slightest pressure on the accelerator engaged the ICE. It was in the mid 40's this morning. There where two adults and two children in the car. Driving home it was 54 degrees and the ICE only ran to get exhaust system to temperature. I was able to drive all electric 99% of the time. 80% of the trip was at 30mph. Top speed was 45mph. The pack took 3.1KWH to recharge.

10/17 11 miles 2.16kwh needed to top off battery (30-40mph)
13 miles 3.10 kwh needed to top off battery (30-40mph)
this is a combination of 7 mile trip- consuming 1.08kwh (this trip depleted 2 bars in SOC). Next trip was taken before charge was complete
second trip was 6 miles (SOC went down 3 bars) and pack took 2.02kwh to complete charge.

10/18 23 miles depleted battery (mostly 30-44mph- 2-3 miles at 50mph). This was a combination of many power cycles as I was canvassing for a local congressional candidate and was driving very short distances about 25% of the time today.

What I noticed today was in 2 miles the first bar in SOC was consumed. The 2nd bar was consumed after 6 miles. The last two bars before the pack was completed were consumed in 2 miles. I dead pan when I can and drive in a way to keep the ICE off.

I just got home and have plugged in. I will send another email to inform you to the amount of electricity that was used to fill the battery.

As I mentioned before, the first week I had the L5, 10 miles of battery consumption consumed 1.25Kwh of electricty. This seems to not be the case anymore.