70 mph EV only mode.

Exciting news, so that was the upcomming big press release they and friends talked about! Well, we knew that >52mph is technically possible to get out of Toyota's HSD, but is it safe for the MG1&MG2 over the longhaul? For more info/links on Ewert Energy (formerly engaged in CalCars PriusPlus) projects check my posts at page #28 of your "Bristol PHEV" thread..

 

Excellent work! It looks like they were drawing about 100A at around 200V, about 20 kW or about 27 hp. There were some interesting spikes but short of doing a frame-by-frame analysis, this was just a raw impression.

Bob Wilson

 

this is great but to me not new.

i see that when in this enhanced EV mode a virtual SOC of 74% or for the prius a 100%(real74%) full battery and between the `( )` the real SOC.

so to me this is the same hymotion and norm with the BMS± is doing

fake the SOC so the prius thinks it needs to get some more energy out of the battery pack because its getting to full and wants to protect the battery.

i can drive 100kmph without using the ice because of this with the BMSplus and have been doing this for several months now.

 

Bob, correct. But this is for steady cruising only, another question is acceleration up to that max. speed point, and there comes the limit of ~50kW MG2 motor and the battery/bms system involved. Obviously, the more agressive aero&weight mods performed to stock Prius the better accel. & cruising economy combined in the end..

But the best kick from this kit is the above 52mph smooth switching between all those PHEV/EV modes..

 

Is this a good idea?

I thought a safety was put in because if you were past 60MPH or so and let up on the gas, engaging regenerative breaking, it would spin too fast for the motors.

-->Adam

 

Furthermore, and someone chime in here to correct me, but I believe the HSD is lubricated from an oil pump driven off the ICE. If the ICE is still, there is no lubrication of the HSD and driving at 75MPH in such a mode would create undue stress/wear.

 

With the Hymotion battery if you draw anything over 30A the stock battery will start to lose its SOC. When that happens the Hymotion battery starts to lower the fake SOC. If the stock battery SOC gets to low the fake SOC gets to low and the car starts to go back to lower than 70MPG in blended mode.

If I were to do what Chris did with my Hymotion battery I think I would damage both batteries pretty quick. They must be using a different method or replacing the stock battery with a custom one so they can draw 100+A like that without problems. Does anyone know what they are doing exactly?

 

is the hymotion using a dc/dc converter or higher voltage addpack to charge the oempack and provide extra energy to the prius ev system.

looking that the voltage also went up when using the enhanced ev mode in that video i think its a bigger and better chemistry battery pack with a dc/dc converter and bigger wire´s then there is no problem the hymotion pack is not that big in kwh.

 

The software upgrade is based upon patented technology developed by Chicago-based Ewert Energy Systems, which has granted PICC exclusive rights for its use in Prius conversion kits.

Green Car Congress: Software Upgrade to Prius PHEV NiMH Conversion Kit Enables All-Electric Driving At Up to 70mph

A software upgrade, retailing for $2,000 to $2,500, will be made available for sale later this month to new and existing conversion kit customers. A free trial version of the software upgrade will later be introduced.

its a shame....only for the money.
looking at the total cost of a plugin system those 2000/2500 way to high.

i hope i get the wrong impression here

 

Roughly 288 watt-Hr per mile.Now my electricity is less than 10 cents per KWHr, so under 3 cents per mile now. Double electricity to 20 cents and it is still the equivalent of 50 mpg at 70 mph($3/gal gas)-current rates it is 100 mpg at 70 mph($3/gal gas)- pretty good.

I think I remember GM claiming that the Volt used just 170watt Hrs per mile at 60 mph, but I could be wrong about that.
Charlie

 

I'm not to sure on how the Hymotion pack does its thing.

I agree the $2k-$2.5k is way to much for this software upgrade. If its software alone that gets changed I would pay about $100 for it. If its a hardware thing then maybe I would pay $100-$500 depending if it would work with my Hymotion pack.

 

i think the problem is

first
the facts this is al new and pionering work and always higher in price

second
the few plugin priusses on the road and the also of them a few can take the upgrade and then set a company up for this the price of every single unit will be higher

so al in al the price is reasonble

but lets hope this price is a artical writers mistake

 

The other thing that if it is drawing 20 kw to do that and you only have approximately 5 kw in your plug-in pack, you get maybe 15 minutes driving that way at most - probably less. The current Prius electric motor just isn't set up for efficient high speed cruising. Even cruising at 50 MPH in EV, which I can do with my Hymotion pack, greatly limits my EV mode range.

 

If I was modding my G2 today, I would refuse this feature.

First, Toyota thought it important to limit MG1 rpm and battery discharge. I'll believe them.

Second, unless I was willing to live within the confines of a 20 kw car, I am going to be turning on the ICE and running in blended mode. This is doubly true because most of my trips will exceed the theoretical EV distance capacity of whatever battery capacity I might buy.

 

First, to use this type of enhancement, you need a bunch of LIPOFE4 external batteries, new NiMh cant be used for electromotive power (chemistry patent restrictions, remember?)
Also with this type of modification I do not know with certainty how is handled but with the "BMS+" system, I and others can drive at 60/65 MPH, feathering the gas pedal and trying to keep the RPM under 1100 and I have ICE spin but no sparks on the injectors, meaning NO combustion, hence infinite MPG for a while.
If the ice "spins", all the mechanicals are getting an oil bath and recirculates, so we are safe in that respect.
I also estimate that being that the "BMS+" doesn't override or cancel anything, like the San Francisco $200.00 secret switch, it does substitute with other more convenient software information, in the event that any temperature or electrical parameter is in the border line, the ICE will fully "turn ON" and continue to behave as a regular Prius Hybrid.
Also to be noted is, we, the users of the "BMS+", can switch to PHEV enhanced mode on the fly by means of a touch panel display button at any speed.
I conclusion, this new 70 mph EV mode is a variant of something already developed and being used since a while. I would like to see it in action to compare both products.

 

That was what I had gathered. The engine might not be burning gasoline, but it is still spinning. That means the lubrication system is operating as well. That's the way I interpret it.

The concern about the engine not running is below 42 mph in EV because it can be left stationary and therefore part of the lubrication system is down. (Although that doesn't seem to have posed any major problems.)

 

Correction, below "34mph", that's the EV electric limit.