What ever happened to the cars and people who added batteries to their oem system back in 03-04?

google is your friend
and you will find a lot of info


the 12 volt batteryts did not last long

the calcars mod first converted prius is stil in use but now with litium if i am not mistaken and also sold to someone else

 

The calcars lead acid conversions cost about $4-5k for about 10 miles electric range, and required replacing the lead acid pack every ~9-12 months at a cost of ~$1000. This was not really an economically feasible conversion, more a proof of concept. Much of the learning out of that project influenced many of the kits that are available today. With DIY lithium conversions for >10 miles range getting down to $2-4k, and commercial at ~$3-5k there is really no reason to consider going back to lead acid. The basic premiss of the old conversions is still fairly sound, but has evolved and improved greatly over the years. Its legacy lives on in conversions like hybrid interfaces BMS+, and plugin supplies latest offerings as well as others I'm sure.

 

Okay
You are referring to the cali crowd know as "eaa phev". For reference "adding batteries" really does nothing. Next as some1 has stated the HV battery pack by toyota / pansonic is almost identical from Gen2 to Gen3 prius and is patent tech stuff vs just adding 12volt lead batteries. If you add more "battery" you need get as much "energy density" as can be purchased. 12volt LEAD ACID BATTERY are old school techology which has been here since before the 1980's and has low cycling and low energy density!!!!!

If you are thinking of getting PHEV realize that doing so is more of personal car modification kind of issue versus a cost-puchase and then say get your cost slowly returned by amortization.

 

I'm one of the pioneers of the cal-cars type of PHEV conversions. My vehicle is conversion # 27, if I remember well and I crown the first PHEV conversion non commercially made in the North Easter region of the USA by those days.
The PHEV modifications I started in late 2005 was , of course, with AGM batteries providing a power source to a 40Amps AC/DC-DC converter.
Few months down the road I switched to NiMH Toyota's OEM (Panasonic prismatic) batteries, adding 3 extra packs for bigger power density and completing this phase in December 2006.
On July 2007 I demo my vehicle at Hybridfest in Madison , WI.
By April 2008 I enhanced the PHEV operation by adopting Hybrid Interface's full line of BMS+ equipment and driving with 6 NiMH power modules including the vehicles own OEM one.
This conversion originally rendered me 89 MPG in blended mode and full 11 EV miles.
Today days these numbers dropped a bit; I do not do exclusive EV driving a lot, but I meet 82/78 MPG consistently since a few years.
Now I'm waiting for my second Plug_in, this time the newest Prius Plug In from Toyota as my primary vehicle.
The 2004 PHEV will still be in the road for my wife's commute to work, with basically no gas.
As a conclusion, having the right type of equipment and proper care, a recycled PHEV Prius will render a lot of satisfaction and extend the ability of almost NO gasoline on your daily driving at a lower cost of a new vehicle for that purpose.

 

My suggestion is the fallowing, the best money can buy for a conversion kit today days is Plug-in-Supply, being the 4KW or the 10KW system.
Two choices and two prices for complete install and DIY and pay as you go.
As per your first question. I would do it in a heart beat again.
My second suggestion will be for you to join your local Electric Auto Association chapter for your area.
We try to provide as much tech info and support to the ones in need. As a side quote, I'm the VP of the Greater New York EAA.
Regards
Horacio

 

Welcome Jimbo! Sounds like you are thinking about things the right way. PHEV conversion is not really a money saving proposition at this time, though its getting closer all the time. Its more akin to those that invest in the performance of their vehicles because they enjoy the process and/or results. If reducing your personal dependance on petroleum, impact on the environment, enjoyment of new technology, etc are worth investing in then a PHEV conversion to your Prius is a pretty good way to get your foot in the door. As mrbigh mentioned the plugin supply kits look quite mature, with a lot of features and capability at a reasonable price. The developer Robb has been involved with prius conversions more or less from the start. Some folks also like the Enginer kits as a cheaper entry option, particularly if your driving matches their low output power for a longer time period approach. If you are more of a tinkerer there is also some exciting work going on with using hybrid interfaces BMS+ (being replaced with BMS2) with a lithium pack for an experimental DIY approach. Norm and his CAN-View boards have also been a part of prius conversion history pretty much from the beginning.

I've never been in a financial/life situation to be able to do my own conversion, but have followed along nearly from the start out of interest and contributed where I could. I've been out of the loop for a year or two, but am finally getting my home solar project underway and am hoping that once the incentives and tax rebates come back I might be able to take the PHEV plunge.

A word of warning though, be careful with that granola. Stuff's addictive

Rob

 

The DIY of a A123 lithium pack using a BMSplus (or BMS2) is becoming cheaper by the day. I built one to overcome the bottleneck of having two existing 4kwh Enginer kits in parallel. I drive in EV mode to work and back totaling 44kms @ 85kph maximum on working days. If I had a chance to start all over I would get a DIY PIS 10kwh kit and source my own batteries from China as it is located nearer. I expect that 80ah(10KWH) lithium would last longer than 40ah(4kwh) taking the maximum discharge current of 125amps into account when doing EV mode. If charging points in Australia become common I should not need to use gas anymore.

I have just been looking at the DIY instructions on the PIS website. They have started publishing DIY instructions.