Is there a way to stay in just eletric?

Their FACT sheet only advertises PROS area and no CONS Facts was written.
Their first Prius conversion used lead-acid batteries.(page-2 of the fact-sheet)
Ron Gremban reported that the $700 battery lasted only 200 cycle charging and the battry cost was $0.35/mile.
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/priusplus/message/519

Ken@Japan

 

The only one worth getting at that price would be the LiIon one... but even at higher speeds, they implied that you still save gas because of the huge reserve to store regen and the ICE would not have to work as hard as it could use some the the battery energy. Its a perfect Idea, but the prius is not yet ready to utilize it in its "perfect state"....

Yes, you could use it now in pure electric with an EV button, you would just be limited to a few miles 2 - 4 until the ICE came on by force to charge the batteries.

The novelty of what your wanting to do may wear off in time.. I don't know. But from what I have read, "purposely" using EV mode till you milk the battery dry does not save energy since there are conversion losses and the ICE just has to make it all back anyway... but it "may" be fun!.... sometimes fun is more important than gas savings.. especially if its just for short special periods.

You can get an EV button for about 50 bucks and then get someone to install it for you..... meanwhile the 12K price of these cool kits will come way down. Batteries are getting cheaper and better and if Toyota doesn't incorporate it, someone else will "if" its usable.

Thats what I fear... its not too usable for the price!.....
If you could charge your car all night and then use the energy at full freeway speeds so as to not get ran over and take twice as long to get to work, then people would use it and the demand would make it profitable and cost effective to produce it. Until that happens.. its just a fun project that may not get off the ground. Toyota themselves can simply add another battery or two in parallel and simulate the same thing they are doing.

Right now, we could buy extra prius batteries and wire them in parallel and get the exact same effect they are doing. But we need some way to reprogram the computer.

 

Paralleling the NiMH batteries do not work that way.
It is a bad idea to connect NiMH batteries in parallel.

Ken@Japan

 

I've never heard of that?.... do they have a hard time staying balanced with each other?

 

They are not going to balanced state, but they are going to be unbalanced.
The only lower internal resistance pack works harder and higher internal resistance pack works less.
Charging the NiHM is done by current and NiMH should be charged in series.
OTOH, charging the lead-acid is done by voltage and they should be charged in parallel.

Ken@Japan

 

I cannot understand why a 34 mph limit would exist.

addendum ..
Wikipage published by the Seattle EVA folks.

 

Yea, but even the NiMH get voltage to pass the current... no current is passed without voltage?... thats the pressure that pushes the current or amperage.
Without voltage nothing is going to get charged no matter what kind of battery it is?

Are you trying to say that they all need the same amount of current? If so lead acid works the same way since they are only 2 volt cells.
I have studied Lead acid extensively, but not NiMH.... I didn't have access to those when I was off the grid.


So I will guess, you can correct me if I'm wrong:
Since NiMH take such high fluxes of current "or are capable of".. I see how it may be easy for several banks to get out of balance with each other if they are not prefectly matched. Cells become matched with "time".. to bring up the weak cells to match the good cells that charge faster and easier. With quick charge discharge duties like the prius battery has.. it may be that the weaker cells would "never" get fully charged and just be a load on the system without benifit?

Normally if all the banks in parallel are the same age, type, size and capacity there are no problems.
Because if there is a weaker bank, then like you say, the weak one is lazy and sucks all the charge current with its lower voltages and then keeps it back when in discharge and lets the good bank do all the work. The resulting effect is that the good banks are overworked and brought down to the level of the weakest bank.

but I have always messed with Lead acid in such cases.

Anyway, if this is really the problem, then Toyota will only be able to increase battery capacity for the prius as technology allows for the individual cells to be larger.

 

Sorry, but I have no time to discuss about this.
I'll let anyone to explain more.
If you found a good professional application using parallel NiMH, please let me know.

Anyway, there is a same kind of debate...
- How do you connect tungsten lamps together, series or parallel?
- How do you connect LED's together, series or parallel?

Yes.
Toyota RAV4-EV has 95AH cells.

Ken@Japan

 

Here for you
[Broken External Image]:http://www.ribghe.org/Maggie/blueprius.jpg

 

I second that notion.

 

The 34 MPH limit exists because the cooling system for the electric motors would have to be bigger and heavier.

 

benighted:

I can imagine the LiIon battery pack having increased heat dissipation req's, but the M/G's are stock. And w hy would that be a speed limit, and not a power limit ?

 

well then, now all your worries are over and no need to cry any more. The color you want simply does not exist on a Prius

 

OK, so the color that you've been wining about that you wanted to have brought to the States from Japan