Has anyone converted their toyota prius to electric plug in?

Question

or added solar?

Answer 1

Theres a company in California that sells better batteries,it will raise mpg to over 100 miles.

They probably have a extra way of charging also.

Answer 2

There are no commercially-available plug-in hybrids on the market so far. (So you cannot plug a hybrid in, other than the same gas station pump that most other regular/conventional cars use.) The hybrid battery is recharged either through regenerative braking (kinetic energy from coasting/slowing down spins a generator to make potential energy in the battery) and/or by taking excess power from the gasoline engine (use the gasoline engine as a generator) to recharge the hybrid battery. There is no plug. No charging off the mains/local electric supply.

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, check out http://www.calcars.org/vehicles.html and http://www.calcars.org/howtoget.html

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.)

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.

Toyota is working on creating a PHEV Prius, and has some test vehicles on the road. Supposedly for the 2010 US model year, and only for fleet customers at first (so not general retail).

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

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

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

video: http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environm...

There is one solar conversion company that I've heard of adding solar panels to a Prius:

http://www.solarelectricalvehicles.com/

There were some recent rumors that the upcoming Prius redesign would include solar panels, but they were just that - rumors.  No official word from Toyota yet.