Plug-in Prius converters 3Prong Power offer 10 miles of EV power for $7,000
Even if not everyone likes the Prius conversion aftermarket results, it can't be a bad thing that there is one more team out there willing to add batteries and a plug to your Prius, right? The WSJ recently profiled Daniel Sherwood and Paul Guzyk of Berkeley's 3Prong Power Inc., which will upgrade your Prius for about $7,000. That seven grand will get you an extra 5 kwh of power from 360 lbs of lead acid batteries (originally designed for electric wheelchairs), enough to go about 10 miles in electric-only mode. They also offer stiffer springs as an option to compensate for the extra weight. For more money (about double), you can choose li-ion batteries. Sherwood told the Journal that, "I don't know if Toyota meant to do it, but they gave us a car that's easy to hack into and easy to improve."
Improve, maybe, but that doesn't mean Toyota is ready to sell plug-in Priuses just yet. The rest of the WSJ article looks at the broader plug-in conversion movement, and we get this from Toyota's Jaycie Chitwood: "For plug-ins to be all encompassing and to replace basic hybrid technology, the electric grid would need to morph into something we don't have yet." The smart grid? A more robust (or green) network?
There's a video from 3Prong after the jump.
[Source: WSJ via EVWorld]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
PeterG 10:51AM (1/07/2009)
Ugh. These plug in conversions are an incredible waste of money.
10mile range saves you what? 1/4 gallon of gas.
Say $4 gas prices, so a charge saves you 1$.
Lead acid batteries won't hit a 1000 cycles. But lets be generous and calll it 1000. 1000 X $1 savings.
So you can spend $7000 to save $1000.
Penny wise, pound foolish. Just about every plug in kit will have similar economics.
IMO they count on the math challenged.
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Carney 11:12AM (1/07/2009)
That massive weight (as much as a very fat man sitting next to you) and cost (thousands) for little gain is a microcosm of the Prius itself and hybrids as a whole. All hybrids haul lots more weight and cost lots more money, just to eke out a few more MPGs.
While you might eventually get your money back in fuel savings, it's a lot of effort, and a big penalty in weight and cargo/passenger space.
Take a fraction of the money ($100) and an infinitesimal fraction of the weight and an ordinary car becomes flex fueled, able to run on any alcohol fuel whenever it can find it, and gasoline at other times.
If we mandated flex fuel capability as a standard feature like seatbelts, alcohol pumps would appear at gas stations on their own, and drivers could take advantage of cheaper and far cleaner alcohol fuel, and cut their gasoline usage by a whopping 85%, far more than any hybrid offers.
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Herm 11:22AM (1/07/2009)
some vehicles would benefit from 360lbs of batteries.. mostly the common 1/2 ton pickup trucks made by Ford, GM or Chrysler.. they tend to be light in the rear when they are not hauling any cargo (most of the time).. now combine this with a couple of in-wheel motors in the front two wheels and you will get substantial savings in gas, plus 4WD.. enough to pay for the conversion? maybe if gas is $5 a gallon.
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Herm 11:27AM (1/07/2009)
Forgot to mention: for fleet operations, such conversions of pickup trucks would offer more savings besides gas, they would reduce brake wear substantially and perhaps offer AC power at the site for work crews.
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Tim 11:48AM (1/07/2009)
“Toyota's Jaycie Chitwood: "For plug-ins to be all encompassing and to replace basic hybrid technology, the electric grid would need to morph into something we don't have yet."”
This is a LIE that the greedy feed to the ignorant!
There have been dozens of studies showing that the nation's grid as it currently exists could handle MILLIONS of PHEVs if they were recharge overnight.
AND that this night charging would displace BILLIONS of gallons of IMPORTED oil (exported American wealth).
AND that this night charging would balance the grid forestalling the need for more power plants which must be designed for PEAK requirements.
AND that a balanced grid would REDUCE electricity cost because capital equipment costs could be more easily amortized.
AND there would be LESS pollution generated (even from coal) because there would be LESS need for "spinning reserves".
AND that a more balanced grid would make renewable daytime solar and nighttime wind electricity more economically viable displacing even MORE fossil fuels.
Could the grid get better? Yes.
Does it HAVE to be improved before mass acceptance of PHEVs? HELL NO!!!
In other words:
Toyota AND Jaycie Chitwood is full of CRAP!
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jharlan 1:18PM (1/07/2009)
Let's be practical here. It's too expensive for what you get. It doesn't make much sense to charge the batteries in your car with energy made by burning fossil fuel anyway. I guess you might be able to impress your environmentalist friends with how green you are, but with the short lifespan of LA batteries, It's really an ineffective way to make a political statement. We can and will do better than this.
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Mark 12:05PM (1/07/2009)
10 mile range for $7000??
yawn, not worth it at all. Come back when you have 30+ miles for that money.
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PeterG 1:01PM (1/07/2009)
Uh no. Then you would be spending $7000 to save $3000.
How about you just give me $7000 and I give you back $4000 worth of gas. It would be a better deal and your Prius wouldn't have to spend any time in the shop and I get to pocket $3000 for saving you an extra $1000.
For this to just break even the range would have to 70 miles per charge.
Plug-ins are currently a complete waste of cash.
ecd4me 7:00AM (1/08/2009)
alcohol cheaper? I thought ethanol production was subsidized. And that with 1.50 gas, ethanol investors were about to lose their shirts.
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Carney 3:03PM (1/07/2009)
The ethanol market in the US is messed up, because it's distorted in multiple directions. It's subsidized, but it's also tariffed to keep the price UP because Brazilian sugarcane ethanol is so cheap and the corn farmer lobby doesn't want the competition.
Drop the tariffs, and the price of ethanol drops like a stone to its naturally low level.
Furthermore, methanol is also inherently very cheap because of the extremely diverse array of source material: you can make it from any biomass without exception inlcluding crop residues (stems, leaves, etc), weed plants, sewage, urban trash, you name it, and coal and natural gas as well.
The price of gasoline may be low at the moment thanks to the economic crash, but the combination of the business cycle returning to growth and, especially, OPEC's drastic production cuts designed to drive the price up will take care of that soon.
In the mid to long term, alcohol fuel's low price is much more stable. Unlike oil, nobody can "corner" the market on alcohol and restrict production to drive up the price artificially, since anybody can make alcohol fuel.
OPEC can also flood the market to crash the price. The Saudis did that in the 1980s to for 2 reasons.
1, to punish the Soviet Union for Afghanistan; the Soviets were (as are the Russians today) a primitive, resource-extraction-based economy heavily dependent on oil revenues. Instead of riding high as in the 70s (and in the last few years) and confidently making mischief around the world, by the late 80s the Soviets, thanks to low oil prices, were begging Western banks for credit just to keep operating, and had to accept political reform as part of the package.
2. to destroy the synfuel industry that Jimmy Carter tried to set up. As soon as it was dead, they jacked the price back up again.
We can't allow control of our economy and destiny to be in the hands of the Saudis. Once a flex fuel mandate is in place and a critical mass of alcohol capable cars is on the road and alcohol pumps at the stations, and the price of oil drops for market or manipulated rasons, we should tarriff it to keep alcohol attractive.
Bill 2:18PM (1/07/2009)
Lead-acid is too short lived for plug-in applications.
Lithium-ion is still awfully expensive.
Until the price of petrol skyrockets current non-plugin hybrids (Prius/Insight/Fusion) are the best deal for consumers.
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stevefazek 6:50PM (1/07/2009)
This company and products disgusts me they have 17 24ah SLA batteries that kit. They cost them a total of 700 dollars for the batteries around 400 for the charger. I have seen at trade shows chinese vendors offering the same kit for $2,000 for SLA and $5,000 for a LiFePo4 pack. Kit both with 30AH cells instead of 24 AH cells.
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stevefazek 6:53PM (1/07/2009)
i was a bit off after going to their site i figured they used the factory voltage they upted the voltage a bit to 256 so they have 22 batteries as 20 amp hours each.
Still the same cost in batteries though.
ryan 7:03AM (1/08/2009)
Wait a sec, with that extra weight, you would end up getting worse mileage when you are running off of the ICE. So, if the car were ever used for highway driving, you would actually be paying MORE money and putting out MORE emissions.
Hybrids are great if used correctly. Light bare bones cars make great commuters. Diesels are highway warriors. Electric cars with significant range would be pure bliss. I just can't buy into these conversions as they seem to give you the worst of both worlds, without providing enough benefit to outweigh their cost.
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ed 1:15PM (1/08/2009)
7 grand for 10 km? lets do the math-
10km day X 365 X 3 = 10,950km
I picked 3ys as the batteries will die or need to be replaced after that.
***also not figured here is the cost of power. and the reduced car power by adding 350lbs ****
baseline this costs $0.63 cents a Mile. (cheaper to take the bus.) and this only accounts for the battery only, not the car.
For $3000 buy a used car and spend the other 3k on gas and repairs.
Also not green is how the prius is made, and where do you think they get the nickle or lead for the batteries?
None of this green stuff even comes close to being economical or realistic.
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NorthernPiker 6:15PM (1/08/2009)
These batteries are only using about 40% of their 5kWh charge capacity, based on CalCars' experience with Prius conversions where they got 5 miles of electric range per kWh. Most likely this is to prevent deep discharge conditions and improve the battery packs cycle life.
$7,000 for 2 kWh of usable battery capacity is a non-starter.
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stevefazek 6:43PM (1/08/2009)
any good AC EV system should use around 200Watts per mile so 1 KW per 5 miles is dead on.
julesk 2:42PM (9/23/2009)
Now 3Prong Power is offering a PHEV kit for as low as $3499.00, check it out www.3prongpower.com
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