Attention Prius Owners

[weaktwos]

Soon, it looks like companies will be offering upgrad kits to turn your Prius into an all-electric vehicle.

I wish there would be a gas-backup for cross country trips. Unless I could plug this up to a hotel room socket over night while I'm on the road.

Which reminds me. Cross country road trip planning has been on my mind alot. I think it would be damn-fine fun.

Now I just gotta plan some time to do it. I'm not sure if I'll do it this year.

Comments

[brittadotcom.livejournal.com]

What I want is a kit to make my Miata into a hybrid...haven't done much research yet, but I'm afraid that'll be awhile, since either cost-prohibitive or I'd need more trunk space or something...maybe someday! I saw a kit how to convert a normal diesel vehicle into running on waste fryer oil, but my car doesn't do diesel now...darn!

Found this, but been delayed so many times, who knows if it'll every be available? Also no list price...

http://www.sigmaautomotive.com/electrocharger/electrocharger.php

[imlac.livejournal.com]

I'm really skeptical as to how much of solution this sort of move is going to be. That electrical energy has to come from somewhere, and since we have an irrational fear of nuclear power in this country, that means it's probably going to come from burning coal, which really is no improvement over gasoline. In fact, it may even be worse, given conversion ratios, loss over powerlines, etc. I suppose it might help get us off mideast oil, and maybe we'll makes some strides in wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, etc., but at currently only like %2 of all our power comes from those sources.

[chanharrison.livejournal.com]

I want a hybrid matrix.. wouldn't that be cool!!

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. I didn't think of that.

[jerodsexton.livejournal.com]

These PHEV's aren't all electric. They simply add extra batteries and a way to charge them ahead of time rather than while driving. This gives you about 50 miles of drive time where you're running purely electric. Once the batteries drop to a certain level, you're back to normal hybrid mode. This gives you about 100 mpg for only the first 100 miles, then you're back to normal (about 50mpg) until you plugin and recharge the batteries. People only drive about 50 miles a day on average. If you can stay under 50 miles a day, you can go without ever filling your tank.

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I see. Thank you for clarifying. When I'm ready to actually pay 7k for that privilege, I'll investigate it further.