Best Practice Circa mid-2013

Hi Alpha,
Not enough information here.

The best general advise I would give is to go find an installer that has an ongoing installation shop and talk with them and see some actual PHEVs. The first thing you need to do is to gain enough knowledge to be able to figure out what expectations you have.

Where are you at? What car are you going to start with? What is your typical drive? What mpg do you want to get? How much maintanence time ar you willing to put into your PHEV everyday, or every week?.... Many questions that you need to figure out before you can even start to talk about a system.

By the way, What is a 2012 Aqua? I have never heard of a car called an Aqua.

Thanks,
Dan

 

By the way, What is a 2012 Aqua? I have never heard of a car called an Aqua.


It's what they call the Prius C in Japan and Europe (?)

 

what the value of the car, 20 grande? is 10 grande significantly less? you can probably make that work. btw, welcome to priuschat, all the best!

 

If that works, just go out and buy a PIP. MUCH better integration and ROI than any kit on any regular Prius.

 

can't argue with that logic.

 

I'll start by saying I don't know anything but there is a wealth of knowledge here on PC. Do a search. This is what I understand so far:

The 4 kwh systems go for about $10k. That's a $15k - $17k entry fee for an aged vehicle.

This is good for 10-15 miles EV so it would seem to work well for you. But since the current systems do not include reprogramming the Prius. It can only provide EV boost. You might get 100 mpg but you'll still use gas on your short trips unless you can keep your foot light and force the car to stay in EV mode. If you've driven a Prius you know how difficult it is to do that outside of a parking lot.

The current providers are small mom and pop outfits that don't know how to do business. I know I am being harsh but I say this due to the poor business practices I've read on here. The main problem is you order the system and then you wait months for your system to arrive in pieces from China and the rest of the world. The providers are too small to keep an entire kit in their warehouse waiting to be ordered and/or the cost of shipping batteries to their shop and then to your home is cost prohibitive. Of course, you have to pay first. Then you wait an entire season from what I've read as pieces trickle in. This is not a 2 week job you can plan for.

A used Plug-in Prius can be had for $5k more than your entry fee if you look hard enough. They are rare. You get a much newer car with warranty. You can also drive the vehicle entirely in EV mode for most situations.

 

Hi Alpha,
mmmodern is not being too harsh. In fact what he states is very real. I have 2 converted Prius that I did more for enjoyment than for savings gas.

First you must get a 2004 or newer Prius. The older Prius will only take the Enginer system that is no longer in production in the USA.

Taylor atomotive did PHEV convertions in Sanford NC but it looks like they no longer do this.
Home Page
I expect that the PHEV business was not viable for them. Anyway, I expect that they can give you good information.

Finally you need to expect to spend lots of money to replace parts and batterys that you have go bad while you are learning. I would expect that cost to be an additional $2-3k during the first year of learning.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Conversion kits are simply years behind the present SOTA. There's no getting around that fact. If you want all to realize the full promise of a PHEV, buy a car that was built that way. Period. I also say this as an owner of an upfitted Prius. I love it, but it's just not the equal of a Volt or PIP in any way.

 

there's a guy in florida with a trunk load of batteries. you should take a look at his thread. if you enjoy tinkering, making things work, improving them, repairing them and spending every waking minute trying to turn an ugly duckling into a swan, this project is for you!

 

I've multiple friends that have conversions. Not as nice a new PHEV, but can be very cost effective. (In Co the rebates, until last year, made the 4kWh net $750.. so it was a no brainer).

Some of the statements above are not quite correct..
The engineer kits had modified electronics allowing up to 70mph EV though that eats the battery very fast.
My friends all have engineer or hymotion kits, neither of which I think are sold any more.

If you want to do it yourself, pluginsupply has instructions and parts. Plug-In Supply Installation Instructions supporting both Gen 2 and Gen 3. They sell both a 4kW pack and 10kWh pack. The 10kW
(i.e. with nearly 3x the usable size of the PiP) will run you about $8K, and the 4kWh pack is about $5K.
Pretty sure they support up to 50mph EV, and 4Kw should get you 10-12 miles of EV, the 10Kwh 20-25.

Whole thread on the PIS kits
Plug-In Supply DIY | PriusChat

 

There is also plughybrid.de that sell the MD-TECH kit. It is similar to the Enginer kit and the price is comparable...

They just added a forum section:

Forum - Plug-in Autos