Overhaulin'

Is it good to modify your hybrid prius into a plug-in car?

Watch a documentary and companys like honda doesn't wan't a plug-in car in their vehicles. They thinkn it's bad, but it is good to modify a hybrid to a plug-in.

Public Comments

1. No just get a real car. Hybrids consume more energy than real cars do. Go do some research on that.
2. their is a lot of misconception about hybrids. first off if you convert one you will devaue the car immediately and any warranty will be voided. Secondly the way they are built now the brake charges them and they are very efficient. They do not save much more gas than mos compact regular cars. just look for the lites in an engine and shoot for lower than 2 liters. If you can get 1.7 and under you will be saving the same energy vs a hybrid.
3. price the charger and the mods to the car not worth it ,theres no benefit
4. The Prius uses nickle metal hydride batteries which work best when kept in a mid-charge cycle. That means the system always tries to keep the batteries somewhere between full peak charge and, obviously, from full discharge. Toyota has yet to have a battery fail in a Prius in normal operating conditions. There are Prius running right now with over 360,000 miles on them with the original batteries. Anything you have seen or read about batteries failing in 2-3 years and costing $5-10,000 to replace is a complete urban myth. Plug-in charging systems are designed to peak charge the batteries at all times, with the idea that the car will run on electricity more. The four biggest problems with this are: 1. you will void your 8 year/100,000 mile warranty completely 2. you will defeat the electrical-only idea of a plug-in system as soon as you press on the accelerator too hard, because the system is designed to turn on the gas motor when you need more acceleration (think of accelerating with traffic) 3. you will lose the storage space and spare tire space in the rear of the car, if not the storage, spare tire and the rear seats, if you go with the extra batteries to hold that extra charge from plug-in systems 4. who do you trust more- the multi-national, multi-billion dollar comapny that has been working on a moving version of these cars since the early 80's and has been so successful with them that Ford and Nissan have just licensed the technology from Toyota versus developing it on their own (the Escape and the Altima hybrids) or.....?
5. This may help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwHzZbO_G30 Certainly an interesting alternative, however the technology needs to be refined before it is available to consumers.
6. --------- Yes, there are several advantages to doing this, and one disadvantage (you will invalidate your warranty.) * The best reason to do this is top save money on fuel. Driving on grid electricity only costs a penny or two per mile, versus 10 to 15 cents per mile for gasoline. * Yes, the battery technology exists for this. NIMH batteries (used in most hybrids already) have been shownn to have 150,000 mile lifespans, even at full charge and discharge cycle rates (many of the Toyota RAV 4 EV electric cars deployed years ago, before any of the hybrids, are still going strong today with over 100,000 miles on the NIMH batteries.) * Or, there are li-ion batteries that are up to the task, as well, such as the ones used in this pure electric car: * http://phoenixmotorcars.com/models/fleet.html * The Phoenix electric pickup truck - this completely gas-free vehicle, using Altairnano (nanotech) batteries - can: -Travel up to 250 miles per charge -Carry 5 passengers plus cargo at 95mph. -Charges batteries in as little as TEN MINUTES. -Has batteries that last 250,000 miles (never need replacement.) * Yes, the Phoenix is a real car, being built right now. * More info on plug-in conversions can be found here: * http://www.calcars.org/howtoget.html * More info on pure electric cars can be found here: * http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car/ ------------