Plugged-In Hybrid Tantalizes Car Buffs
A Southland company comes up with a system that lets Toyota's Prius burn even less gasoline by connecting it to a regular electrical socket.
By John O'Dell
Times Staff Writer
June 25, 2005
Toyota Motor Corp. boasts that its hot-selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid doesn't have to be plugged in.
But a growing number of hybrid buffs interested in further boosting the car's fuel economy are asking, "Why not?"
By replacing the Prius' batteries with a more powerful array and recharging it using a standard electric outlet at home, engineers have enabled the hybrid to get more than 100 miles per gallon of gasoline.
"We want to get people thinking of [plug-ins] as a real alternative" in the country's long-term energy plan, said Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars.org, an advocacy group in Palo Alto.
The idea of plug-in hybrids is generating a lot of buzz in energy circles because of the work of a start-up Monrovia firm, Energy Control Systems Engineering. The firm bought a Prius and converted it with its own system.
Co-owner Greg Hanssen now tools around Southern California in the bright blue plug-in Prius prototype. The car can deliver 150 to 180 mpg for up to 35 miles of low-speed, around-town driving and can average 70 to 100 mpg on longer trips at higher speeds.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District recently gave the company $130,000 to convert four Priuses to plug-ins that will be tested in several car fleets.
In a standard Prius, a battery pack is charged by the vehicle's own gasoline engine and with electricity produced by the brakes. The car's all-electric mode is fairly limited because the Prius uses its gas engine except at very low speeds. Most owners get 45 to 55 mpg.
However, Energy Control Systems' design tricks the Prius' computer into thinking its batteries are always fully charged, so it uses the electric motor to try to drain them before switching on the gas engine.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-p ... -headlines
A Southland company comes up with a system that lets Toyota's Prius burn even less gasoline by connecting it to a regular electrical socket.
By John O'Dell
Times Staff Writer
June 25, 2005
Toyota Motor Corp. boasts that its hot-selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid doesn't have to be plugged in.
But a growing number of hybrid buffs interested in further boosting the car's fuel economy are asking, "Why not?"
By replacing the Prius' batteries with a more powerful array and recharging it using a standard electric outlet at home, engineers have enabled the hybrid to get more than 100 miles per gallon of gasoline.
"We want to get people thinking of [plug-ins] as a real alternative" in the country's long-term energy plan, said Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars.org, an advocacy group in Palo Alto.
The idea of plug-in hybrids is generating a lot of buzz in energy circles because of the work of a start-up Monrovia firm, Energy Control Systems Engineering. The firm bought a Prius and converted it with its own system.
Co-owner Greg Hanssen now tools around Southern California in the bright blue plug-in Prius prototype. The car can deliver 150 to 180 mpg for up to 35 miles of low-speed, around-town driving and can average 70 to 100 mpg on longer trips at higher speeds.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District recently gave the company $130,000 to convert four Priuses to plug-ins that will be tested in several car fleets.
In a standard Prius, a battery pack is charged by the vehicle's own gasoline engine and with electricity produced by the brakes. The car's all-electric mode is fairly limited because the Prius uses its gas engine except at very low speeds. Most owners get 45 to 55 mpg.
However, Energy Control Systems' design tricks the Prius' computer into thinking its batteries are always fully charged, so it uses the electric motor to try to drain them before switching on the gas engine.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-p ... -headlines
