2009 Toyota Prius plug-in battery questions?

Question

So if the 2009 Prius is supposed to be a plug-in, I have these questions just in case anyone has an answer:

1. How long would it take to charge the battery?

2. What is the electricity draw? (i.e. How much will this affect my electric bill?)

3. How long does the charge last?

4. Will I need to replace the battery or is it expected to outlast the eventual use of the car?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You wont have to worry about plugging in your 2009 or 2010 Prius and have it affect your electricity bill.  Why, might you ask.  The plug in cars will only be available for fleet lease.  No customer will be able to rent or buy one.  So unless you're part California Edison or such.  You wont even be able to touch one unless you hit one in a car accident.

Answer 2

i hope you don't have a prius to be 'green'. to process to make a prius produces more co2 than it does for me to drive my 300gco2/km+ jaguar xj-s 40,000 miles!(because the nickel for the batteries is produced in Canada. it is then shipped to japan to be assembled it is then shipped to USA, Europe etc.) but if u using it cos it cheaper that ok. my xjs isn't cheap.

Answer 3

There are no announced changes for the 2009 Prius, other than an increase in MSRP.

Toyota has announced that they'll be offering for fleet sales (not retail/general public) a PHEV Prius in 2010.

Photos of test vehicles:  http://pressroom.toyota.com/?page=images...

more info:

http://pressroom.toyota.com/Releases/Vie...

http://pressroom.toyota.com/Releases/Vie...

http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/07/0725....

(For the NiMH batteries, Toyota estimates a charging time off of household current:  1:1.5 hours (200V), 3:4 hours (100V) )

videos and more information:  http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environm... and http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environm...

Do be careful of reading any online speculative articles about future Prius. Usually they try and quote or translate from a Japanese publication, which would use the very generous Japanese fuel economy test cycles. Quite often, you'll then see UK gallons used, which are larger than American gallons, so the MPG will be reported much higher. The current Prius http://toyota.jp/prius/spec/spec/ on the Japanese 10-15 cycle is listed as 33.0 km/l (77.6 mpg, or 93.2 Imp. mpg), and on the JC08 cycle 29.6 km/l (69.6 mpg, or 83.6 Imp. mpg), but on the US EPA test cycles it gets 48mpg city and 45mpg highway.

There are no commercially-available plug-in hybrids on the market so far. (So you cannot plug them in, other than the same gas station pump that most other regular cars use.) Some hobbiests and aftermarket companies have been altering a few hybrids (Prius, Ford Escape Hybrid/Mercury Mariner Hybrid) to make them plug-in capable. Typically this requires adding additional hybrid batteries, besides the ability to charge off the mains.

For more information, as well as companies that'll do the work, check out http://www.calcars.org/vehicles.html

There's also this recent article:  http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may08/6174

For cost reasons, unless you are a fleet owner or other high-mileage driver it probably will not be worth the cost of the PHEV conversion for you. (Conversion pricing is high due to startup costs and low volumes, besides the pricing of the needed additional battery packs.) Emission benefits, if any, depends on the source of electricity in your region.

To note, converting to a PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) does not reduce the vehicle's range. It gives the owner the option to recharge the (newly added larger) hybrid battery pack at night (cheap electricity and off-peak electric load which would otherwise be lost). The vehicle would run for a certain distance (longer than stock) on the stored electric power alone, and when the battery pack is depleted to a certain point the vehicle reverts back to its original hybrid self and runs on a combination of the gasoline engine (which will also recharge the battery) and the electric motor. A PHEV would add a greater all-electric range to the existing hybrid, besides the ability (but not the requirement!) to plug it into an electric source.

To note, the stock NiMH batteries in the current Toyota Prius are under warranty for at least 8 years/100,000 miles in the US (out to 10 years/150,000 miles in California-emission states).  Toyota offers a $200 "bounty" on old batteries to make sure that they get recycled/rebuilt, in a facility that they've had since 1998 when the RAV4 EV came out.  NiMH is not considered hazardous waste (unlike the traditional lead-acid 12v accessory/starter battery that all cars use).

Usually the mythic "article" from The Mail on the nickel in the hybrid cars' NiMH batteries is quoted from a now retracted article. The retraction that clears up this bit of misinformation is at: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live...  (They were using data from the early 1970's about the INCO-Sudbury nickel mine, which was more than 20 years before the first hybrids needed NiMH batteries, and the plant has greatly cleaned themselves up and reforested the area since then. If you were to add up the amount of nickel in the million+ hybrids sold since 1997, the total is less than 1% of the world's annual nickel production (far more nickel is used for stainless steel, for example).)

Answer 4

For specific answers, I recommend going to a Toyota dealer and speaking with a Prius Technician.  Those are questions, either easily found on there site, or for a specialist to answer.  

This is my attempt at your questions:

1. Anywhere from 5 hours to 24 hours.

2.This is dependent on how fast a charge.  Could be a regular 12/20 outlet(slow charge), to a dedicated 50amp(like a dryer outlet).  A hybrid is meant to be charged while driving on gas, and braking...

3. Hybrid, or straight battery?  The range on pure electric ANYTHING has been bad, unless your using very expensive Lithium Ion batteries. Something like 30k or more just for the batteries.  Tesla motors is using them in there little elise copy haha.  It will improve with technology and Nano batteries..

4. This is something Toyota already has plans for, as batteries are quite hazardous to make and trash.  They will definitely not last the life of the vehicle, and Toyota supposedly will have a "battery recycling" program where they fix your old cells.  Im predicting a lot of battery change outs in maybe 10 years or so.