Adding more Prius batteries

I'm with paradox here.. you can get kits for the older cars that are well engineered including adjusting the electronics. Even if it is cheaper to add the kit to a 2012, I don't know anyone selling compatable kits and you would greatly shorten your warranty .

As others said, if you want a 2012, get a PiP out of state and ship it or drive it back.

 

If these aftermarket PHEV kits were made by automotive companies then, yes, they would be well engineered.

 

That was Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, she's a well known EV industry author, she also does a podcast called. "transport evolved" weekly that is all about different types of new vehicles and industry news stories, it's mostly on EVs of course. She also writes at least half the news stories on "GreenCar Reports"

Green Car Reports - Green Car Reports

Transport Evolved

At this point you are better off buying a 2012 PiP, and eventually there will be add on packs for it, for additional range, or more likely a replacement pack when the density increases, as there isn't a lot of space to add additional batteries to a 2012 PiP.

 

I personally wouldn't mind expanding my range to 25 miles.

 

I'm not sure we'll see drop in packs with increased battery density or chemistry. Has that happened for the 1st Gen?

I see it more like the computer industry. While you can upgrade your cpu, motherboard, and memory the incremental benefits still cost more than just waiting an getting the next generation.

Wasn't someone developing a trailer with a battery pack or something that mounts on a hitch? That would open up interesting possibilities and problems for converting existing platforms to plug-in or swapping out packs.

 

seek, the theory being that in 5-10 years, as the existing pack starts to show its age (as all lithium packs do, it will have less EV range over a large # of charges, and just time..), by then, higher density packs should be out, and a replacement at that time could get you double the # of EV miles, as battery density should be considerably higher by then (hopefully will have doubled).

Of course with a 5-10 year old car, you could just sell it/trade it in, and buy the latest new car/technology out at that time, it really depends on how popular the PiP becomes, if an industry develops to support 3rd party future upgrades or not. You can see there are several manufacturers offfering PHEV conversions for Gen 2 Priu (2004 - 2009)..