Just put jumper cables on the battery terminals, connected to a charger of the correct voltage...
And, put a switch to the starter motor of the hybrid gas engine, so's the gas engine can't start, for battery-only operation.
Did I miss anything else??
I'm reading that the plug-in feature substantially raises the price of a new car, if the mfr supplies it as an option, or that conversions of existing hybrids cost $5-15K, making the recoupment of investment virtually impossible.
Yes, software development. You have added a new element to the normal mix.
Now, I must say I think present suppliers of plug-in conversions are making a lot of money. I think it could be done more cheaply.
That being said, on a plug in hybrid, one has to decide at what point one wants to start the IC engine. In the normal Prius mode when the car is turned on the IC engine starts and comes up to normal operating temperature. If not much use of the IC engine, it is still started periodically to keep it at operating temp. With a plug in, do you want to keep the engine warm while it is operating on the battery charge, or wait till the battery charge drops to some level? If the later, that means a change in software. So a new chip is called for.
Now, the existing kits do not even worry about that- there is a completely seperate battery and operating mode. So the operation is not "seamless."
Toyota's philosophy has been to make operation seamless. Other hybrid mfgs could go the other way, like the kit folks. But it seems likely that Toyota would go for the software changes.
Suppose then, that I did find the right battery charger, and I did put a switch to the gas engine starter.
If I also intall a separate battery, *off the car's "grid", just for starting the ic engine*, it seems to me that I could run the batteries down, and with this separate battery, then start the ic engine, to finish the trip.
iow, *I* would decide when to kick in the IC engine.
It seems to me that when the car loses oomph on the batteries, that's enough of a seamless cue to flip the switch.
Is all this do-able/feasible? Would the effing car software prevent me from doing this? Why the hue and cry for seamless?
i think you will find that if you run the batteries down all the way each time you drive the car, and then charge them up later with plug power, you may save some gas, but the existing batteries will not last for very many cycles of full discharge/charge. The Prius batteries really only store the regen energy from the brakes and also smooth out the power drawn from the IC so it can run efficeintly. The Prius batteries do not store a large amount of energy. If you force them to do that, they won't last very long and you while you may save some money on gas but you will loose money big time when you have to change the batteries early.
i think you will find that if you run the batteries down all the way each time you drive the car, and then charge them up later with plug power, you may save some gas, but the existing batteries will not last for very many cycles of full discharge/charge. The Prius batteries really only store the regen energy from the brakes and also smooth out the power drawn from the IC so it can run efficeintly. The Prius batteries do not store a large amount of energy. If you force them to do that, they won't last very long and you while you may save some money on gas but you will loose money big time when you have to change the batteries early.
It's ALL about the batteries. ===========================================
That's a good point. I read that these battery packs are, like, $8G!!??
So you are saying that plug-in conversions are essentially pointless?
I guess that explains why the planned plugins from mfr's are sig'ly higher in price, because of the beefier battery packs.
I just read that the only *series* hybrid (ic connected to generator, not to wheels, as opposed to parallel hybrids) is the Chevy Volt, which
ain't ready 2. ain't cheap and 3. depending on what happens with gm, may never be ready!
That should work. It is just different from what Toyota itself does. Their belief is most drivers don't want to do anything, or make any decisions, themselves.
If you are willing to keep track of the charge and take the actions to switch, that should be fine.
I suspect Toyota appreciates the laziness of most drivers :-)
Do you agree with Mark's statement, that it's not even a good idea to do this, based on the intended "assist" function of these battery packs in current hybrids?
Now that this issue came up, I seem to recall, in one ditty on a plug-in conversion, that beefing up the battery pack may have been part of the precess.
The HV battery is computer controlled to keep it's charge at no lower than
40% and no more than 80% SOC (State of Charge) in the Generation II (2004-2008) Prius. If you run out of gas and try to drive on battery only you will not be able to do it for more than a short distance, at which time your dash will light up like a Christmas tree and shut you down. The Gen I (2001-2003) did not have this safety feature, so if one ran out of gas and did not heed the warning in the manual against driving on battery only, it was possible to drain the HV battery below 40% and kill it. So you are correct. It seems to seek about 5-6 bars, or about 60% SOC. But even when it is at 2 purple bars it is still at 40%. It does an excellent job of taking care of itself and we just get to drive it and have fun!
PS. There is a PC member with 322,700 miles on the original battery in his
2002 Classic Prius - still going strong. =======================================
Funny, I seem to recall some radio batteries, where the mfr recommended full discharges! Hmmm......
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