Single Day Century (100+ miles) on EV only - in Chicago winter!

No. I did 47 total today and all with EV and came in between and able to charge. I am wondering about how I might be able to increase this to 100+ plus per day? I live and work in area with almost no EV charging stations but I am wondering if there is an alteration that can be done to the car (2017 Prius PHEV) that could increase the amount of the charge the battery can hold? Has anyone tried? My second option is buying a Goal Zero, Yeti power source and charging the car, while I work. Has anyone tried this? Did you know how large a power source I would need? I have been looking at the 1000x or 1500X but can't find the answer.

 

Maybe, but not very feasible. It will cost too much and requires in-depth knowledge of traction battery systems known only to Toyota engineers. There were some aftermarket proprietary or DIY add-on traction batteries for older Pip and Prius, but they all died out due to high cost and low demands, IIRC.

Simply calculated, you need ~6.6kWh to fully charge the traction battery to gain ~25miles of EV range. With a 1000W unit, you can only get 1kWh recharged. Meaning only ~15% SoC gained. With a 1500W unit, still, you will get only ~23% SoC. Again it is not feasible to use such a device which costs a few thousand dollars to charge the traction battery to gain a small EV range.

 

The most effective and practical and low-hassle "alteration" is to trade it in for a model with the longer electric range you really want.

Very best case, it would take more than a dozen of those largest Yetis, very likely exceeding the load limit of the car. And of course, you could use only one at a time. More likely case, 1.5 to 2 dozen of them.

Trading in for a longer range BEV would work much better.

 

Also, there's the current limitation. I'm pretty sure you'd have to charge at 8A. It would take all day to charge with these, even if you could afford to buy them and the car could haul them.

That's really impressive. I've done 45 miles lots of times and 60 miles maybe once or twice.

 

I looked up the spec for this GoalZero 6Kw power station.

The spec says it can do it up to 16.5A. May be able to charge at 12A in 6 hours. BUT... it cost $4K... and takes 12 hours to recharge the pack from the wall.

• 120V AC Inverter: 120VAC 60Hz, 16.5A (2000W, 3500W surge) (output, pure sine wave)

 

I considered doing this, as I have been thinking about getting the 6K as a backup for my house anyway and don't mind recharging the pack (my home is solar and I live in Phoenix). However, I would then be driving around with a $4Kplus battery pack, in my trunk or back seat and if it was stolen, I would either be SOL or have some explaining to do, with my insurance company. I guess these aren't the answers I was hoping to hear but I am still grateful for the answers. Otherwise, I may have tried it and been really disappointed.

 

Another thing to consider is that you have a $4K battery pack in your car that gets baked in the sun shortening life. And, the battery is rated only Lifecycles: 500 Cycles to 80% capacity, meaning it will last only 500 daily deep cycles to give PP less than a full 4.8kWh of charge. IMHO, not worth the money spent.