I bought a new Prius about a month ago and I heard about a really good Colorado tax rebate for plug-in conversions, so I bought the kit sold here:
http://www.enginer.us/
And I'm getting ready to take my car apart and install it.
(and, yes, warranty voiding issues are possible, but I can remove it if need be).
The kit basically installs a much larger battery which you can charge at home at night which continuously tops off the internal battery so then you can drive a lot farther using the internal battery than you would otherwise.
So the obvious questions that might come up are "how far does it go on electricity", and that depends a lot on driving habits it appears, but it seems like 12-30 miles depending on speed and electric-only mode use. Another would be "how much does this improve mileage?" and that seems to depend on who you talk to, how slowly you are willing to accelerate (the slower the better), and how fast you drive (you need to stay under 45mph to get best results), but a reasonable number seems to be about 25-50% better city mileage.
Another might be "can this kit really pay for itself?" and the answer is, unless you are in Colorado, probably not. In Colorado, you get an 85% rebate, and then there's a 10% federal rebate, and they stack, so it's basically 95% off of the price in tax rebates. Given the $3500 cost, it's basically $175 after rebates (if you install yourself). Users claim to get about 25-50% better city mileage with it - which on a Prius means about 60-75mpg city (up from about 50mpg city). It doesn't help much at all over 50mph, so highway mileage is effectively unchanged.
So, if you drive 12000 miles a year - in trips that are short and slow enough to use mostly electricity - then using optimistic numbers you'd save (12000/50 - 12000/70 = 240 - 171 = 69 gallons, @ $3/gallon = ~$210/year). Electricity where I live is about $0.07/kWh (yes, it's insanely cheap link if you don't believe). The cost of electricity here is about $0.30 to recharge, so theoretically it pays for itself in one year... in Colorado if you drive carefully, all city mileage, and you assume the most opimistic numbers.
In reality, I do drive pretty much 80% city and rarely drive over 50mph going to and from work but I don't drive anywhere near 12k per year. I've been driving about 7000 miles per year. But I've noticed that the Prius mileage sucks in the winter - which is something that I've never read anywhere except hypermiling blogs - because the motor runs full-bore until it heats up and so you can't drive in electric-only mode until the catalytic converter is hot enough and whenever it cools down, it turns the motor back on again. So... I'm thinking I'll be lucky to have the kit pay for itself in 5 years...
But, regardless of the economics of it, it's fun to tinker with the car, and it's an interesting project and it's unlikely to end up costing me more than I paid for it. I forsee the biggest problem is making sure my wife doesn't drive it off while it's charging.... There is the warranty issue... but there's not all that much to the kit (4 electrical connections total in the whole car) and I can remove it fairly quickly if I have to.
If there's any curiousity here, I'll post pictures and mileage numbers...
http://www.enginer.us/
And I'm getting ready to take my car apart and install it.
(and, yes, warranty voiding issues are possible, but I can remove it if need be).The kit basically installs a much larger battery which you can charge at home at night which continuously tops off the internal battery so then you can drive a lot farther using the internal battery than you would otherwise.
So the obvious questions that might come up are "how far does it go on electricity", and that depends a lot on driving habits it appears, but it seems like 12-30 miles depending on speed and electric-only mode use. Another would be "how much does this improve mileage?" and that seems to depend on who you talk to, how slowly you are willing to accelerate (the slower the better), and how fast you drive (you need to stay under 45mph to get best results), but a reasonable number seems to be about 25-50% better city mileage.
Another might be "can this kit really pay for itself?" and the answer is, unless you are in Colorado, probably not. In Colorado, you get an 85% rebate, and then there's a 10% federal rebate, and they stack, so it's basically 95% off of the price in tax rebates. Given the $3500 cost, it's basically $175 after rebates (if you install yourself). Users claim to get about 25-50% better city mileage with it - which on a Prius means about 60-75mpg city (up from about 50mpg city). It doesn't help much at all over 50mph, so highway mileage is effectively unchanged.
So, if you drive 12000 miles a year - in trips that are short and slow enough to use mostly electricity - then using optimistic numbers you'd save (12000/50 - 12000/70 = 240 - 171 = 69 gallons, @ $3/gallon = ~$210/year). Electricity where I live is about $0.07/kWh (yes, it's insanely cheap link if you don't believe). The cost of electricity here is about $0.30 to recharge, so theoretically it pays for itself in one year... in Colorado if you drive carefully, all city mileage, and you assume the most opimistic numbers.
In reality, I do drive pretty much 80% city and rarely drive over 50mph going to and from work but I don't drive anywhere near 12k per year. I've been driving about 7000 miles per year. But I've noticed that the Prius mileage sucks in the winter - which is something that I've never read anywhere except hypermiling blogs - because the motor runs full-bore until it heats up and so you can't drive in electric-only mode until the catalytic converter is hot enough and whenever it cools down, it turns the motor back on again. So... I'm thinking I'll be lucky to have the kit pay for itself in 5 years...
But, regardless of the economics of it, it's fun to tinker with the car, and it's an interesting project and it's unlikely to end up costing me more than I paid for it. I forsee the biggest problem is making sure my wife doesn't drive it off while it's charging.... There is the warranty issue... but there's not all that much to the kit (4 electrical connections total in the whole car) and I can remove it fairly quickly if I have to.
If there's any curiousity here, I'll post pictures and mileage numbers...
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter