the great thing to me about this car is all the mods people are creating.

i have hybrids-plus's battery and plug adapter in, plus rick eye of go100mpg (here in LA)'s mod of a switch which stops the prius from kicking the gas in until you get over 52 mph.  with these two mods, my prius gets over 200 mpg.  some of that is because the type of driving i do--on LA city streets--is perfectly suited to a car that is electric up to 52 mph, but even if that weren't the case anyone with these mods could get well over 100 mpg.

it's all available now, with today's tech.  toyota's announcement that it would start making the prius a plug-in in 2010 is extremely disappointing--the battery they are proposing to use, simply put, sucks.  they are trying to keep the price point down but that's a mistake in my view.

Glad you could get 52 mph out of the Prius electric motor alone.

A bit bigger electric motor and a decent battery (40 to 60 mile electric range)would make the Prius plugin conversion a complete solution to GHG from cars and peak oil.

Hypercar parts for the Prius, carbon fiber body panels, doors, hood and so forth would really make it even better.  But of course, being a conversion of an already expensive new car it isn't affordable.

Will a Barack administration give a green light to toyota plugins?  I still think darth cheney is behind toyota's delay of plugin technology.

An ultralight, very low power, plugin hybrid, with a 40 hp electric motor and 12 hp backup generator would be the real hypercar to beat if it were mass produced.  Chinese companies have to be thinking about this right about now.

What about Honda leapfrogging toyota with a design like this?  Do it or go the way of GM, Honda.

BTW, I think this spells the death of the US owned auto industry.  Too slow Lutz.  You are a complete moron.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

  I have a year old Prius. So far the cost of any of these mods has been prohibitive, for all but those who want to early adopt at any cost. I hear there will be a plugin kit from A123 (lithium ion battery), that will enable an approx 14mile plug in range. But at $10,000, it will require roughly $10/gallon before it makes economic sense. That is the real reason that we are still waiting for plugins, and electric vehicles, the battery technology is just not yet there in an affordable yet long lasting package. As the cost of batteries declines, and gas goes up I expect plugins will start appearing. Expect early plugins to have very limited pure electric range, as expensive battery capacity will make longer range just too expensive.

  Incidentally, for those who have the current unmodified Prius. With a little care in your driving, you should be able to get 50-60mpg. The key is to use the electric mode to maintain speed, not for acceleration. The limited electric energy is very valuable in allowing you to maximize the time the gas motor is off. Also regenerative braking is not that efficient, so trying to minimize braking is nearly as important as it would be in a non hybrid vehicle.

Hey! A comment from jabailo!

FYI, the discovery of a new oil field does not make oil an infinite resource, nor does it disprove the fact that we should move on from an oil-based economy. Quoting someone doesn't make it a fact.

One gallon of fuel equivalent, 6 kwh, can be stored with 350 pounds of the new Oasis foamed lead/acid battery.  That should give a Prius a 40 to 50 mile plugin range.

They are coming on the market soon, built for semi-tractors, so the "hotel" function of trucks can be powered without running the diesel engine, in line with new fuel economy restrictions in California.  That's 5 batteries, I'm guessing they may cost 100 to 200 dollars a piece?

That weight is kind of high.  It would probably take a hypercar version with carbon fiber replacement parts for enough of the metal parts on the car to save 300 pounds or more.

I saw the A123 conversion at the midwest Renewable Energy Fair last summer.  The people driving it as a demostration car told me the cost was mainly in the computer chips. and they claimed the range was 40 miles on plugin.

52 mph with modification?  Has someone come up with a software solution or simpler hardware modification to fool the existing Prius chips?  It might reduce the price a lot.  

Agreed tom, these prices are out of sight of most consumers.  But let us look for a meeting point.  Say 5 dollar gas meets a 5000 dollar conversion kit for a used economy car?

Battery, and electric motor to power the rear wheels of a front wheel drive car like a Honda Acccord.  And enough hyper light replacement parts to lighten the car a few hundred pounds. That would seem reasonable and possible.

Then the thousands of dollars saved every year would pay off the conversion in a few years.  And let us not forget, early adoption of a car that might last 8 years puts the savings out a few years, with 10 dollar gas, at a very profitable level.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

"It is physically impossible to increase gas mileage of a Prius (for any given tank of gas) by maximizing the time it runs on battery power alone (unless it is a plug-in drawing energy from the grid), because all energy came from burning the gas."

This is not correct for the current generation of hybrids. The limits of battery charge/discharge and size of battery result in cases where energy cannot be recovered and cases where battery energy cannot be used in the most effective way. The current hybrids have batteries sized to compromise between initial cost and gas savings. However, a bigger battery would allow greater gas savings.

Honda makes a hybrid that is not nearly as popular. What gives, quality, advertisement?

They also make a NGC, a natural gas car and have a company that makes a home natural gas charge station. How is that working out? I believe it works out to about $1.00 a gallon when compared to gasoline.

I would really like to see the other Hybrids give toyota some competition to bring the price down on these units. Quality and efficiency will determine how well they do in the market. It is just hard to get reliable data. I do not trust corporate data on miles per gallon and quality.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.