[David Duchesne]

Lets imagine that you found the perfect power source that could supply the hybrid battery with all the juice it needs. Is the prius capable of running continuously in EV mode never cuttting in with the gas motor? 0-60 mph and cruising at 60 hour after hour.....

Since the electric motor is an assist motor, I imagine its lacks the robustness to power all the cars movement, day after day, month after month.

I ask this because in 8-10 years maybe a power source (battery or fuel cell) will become available and one could convert the todays prius to ecectric only.

 

[KTPhil]

Not enough HP to do it alone. The high torque off the line that an electric motor gives is a good compliment to the gas, but won't replace it.

 

[DanMan32]

I think the motors could get you to 60 MPH, and certainly could maintain it, though it may take 15 seconds to go from 0-60. This assuming the battery could deliver the entire power that the motor could deliver.

The motor can deliver 67 HP at up to 1540 RPM. I am not sure what vehicle speed that translates to though and how much the power output drops off at higher RPM. However, currently the battery can't deliver 67 HP, which would be the sole source of power in EV. The battery is rated at 27 HP output according to Toyota website Prius specs.

 

[MikeFromEastCoast]

The high torque off the line that an electric motor gives is a good compliment to the gas, but won't replace it.

If you are talking about electric motors in general, this is a myth. Check out the recent X-1 and Tesla electric vehicles.

 

[KTPhil]

"If you are talking about electric motors in general, this is a myth. Check out the recent X-1 and Tesla electric vehicles."

No, I'm answering the question posted in the thread, concerning the Prius motor currently installed:

"Is the prius capable of running continuously in EV mode never cuttting in with the gas motor? 0-60 mph and cruising at 60 hour after hour..... "

 

[Leo]

The battery is rated at 27 HP output according to Toyota website Prius specs.

If that's true, then there is no way that you could create a plug-in Prius hybrid without substantially more battery capacity - and a higher discharge rate. And how do those EV only modes work? What would be the maximum speed that someone could drive a Prius in pure EV mode? It must be pretty slow!

 

[DanMan32]

Foorced-EV mode is programmed to cut out over 34 MPH or excessive acceleration demand.
It will also cut out or refuse to enter in on low SOC, or if the battery is too hot or cold. Cruise control is disabled in forced-EV.

Also recall, only a portion of the actual full battery capacity is useable. The Prius only charges to 80% max, normally rests at about 60%, and won't go lower than 40% in order to preserve battery lifetime.

The idea of the plug-in Prius is not to eliminate the ICE need, but substantially reduce it. Ever notice that when the battery goes green, espcially when it tops 8 bars, it favors EV at the ECU's discretion? And the key word is favors. ICE is still used even at high SOC, just not nearly as much as when SOC is blue. When I see FE showing 75 MPG at speeds over 45 MPH, I check SOC and most of the time, sure enough I have 7 green bars.

 

[philmcneal]

lets say if you live in a congested area like china. And you experience low speeds most of your trip (max 40 km/h) so the prius would be in EV mode most of the time right? Therefore having the battery drained and the engine comes on to charge it everytime. A few questions arises

a) how would it affect mileage, compared to a car or a diesel manual that would always keep the rpms at low

b) would consant use of the battery would kill it? Although I understand the prius engine can create usable electricity on the fly so how efficent is this mode of operation? Wouldn't the prius act as a "series" hybrid most of the time?

c) I understand at lower speeds (like slower the better) your battery use is very minimal espically if your travelling 20 km/h max so does that translate to much efficent operation at lower speeds?

uh yeah all i just want to know is, what your if you decided to travel 5 km at 20 to 40 km/h speed ranges. Not that you'd want to, but just because traffic conditions permit you from going fast. (congestion).

 

[DanMan32]

When moving, the lower the SOC the higher the probability ICE will be started to provide power to the wheels as well as recharge the battery. It does a balancing act. Low speeds is the most efficient range of the car, though probably extremely low sustained speeds would suffer FE.

The ECU though not always successful, tries to maintain the most fuel efficient split of power. Electric motors are very efficient at low speeds, where ICE are not. Therefore running the ICE once in a while at a higher RPM and powewr to charge the battery can be more efficient than running it at a low RPM to maintain power to move the car.

 

[mrv]

short trips, particularly in congestion, will cause low MPG in any car, not just the Prius. (All that idling in a conventional car can be stressful to both the engine and the passengers...) The Prius will be running its gasoline engine much of the time during a short trip, warming itself for emissions reasons. But once you're in the congestion and the car is warm, you'll mostly be in EV (or at least the engine will shut down while stationary).

 

[DanMan32]

Also during the warmup, the engine has to guess the proper fuel/air mixture, and guesses on the side of being rich which will lower FE.

 

[library1]

Electric Only or what?

So how do the Plug-in Prius mods perform?

And what fuel could we substitute for gasoline in the IC? Methane or Hydrogen or a combo? Ideas?

I see there are Natural Gas compressors in So Cal, but thats a more fragile (earthquakes) system than the oil industry (Hurricanes, Politics, etc.) Just being optomistic. :twisted:

 

[mrv]

Re: Electric Only or what?

And what fuel could we substitute for gasoline in the IC? Methane or Hydrogen or a combo? Ideas?

There is a guy in the UK who is willing to do LPG conversions on Prius. He's already driving around in an imported NHW10 that he had converted.
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Pri ... ssage/7692