General Disclaimer: (HV) (DC) injury or death hazard, use at your own risk, may void warranty. |
Prius PHEV
Click show for a short list of the current PHEV conversion and kit options for the Toyota Prius. |
---|
For Prius conversion details see the Prius PHEV article and comparisons table.
|
To this date there have been a number of successful Prius PHEV conversions beginning with Ron of CalCars [1] [2] Original [3] and current PriusPlus projects. Other small startups include the PiPrius [4] [5] and Hybrids-Plus [6] [7] projects. EnergyCS [8] and their European partner Amberjac [9] as well as Canadian Hymotion [10] have converted numerous Prius PHEVs to this point. EDrive [11] will be offering conversion soon. The tenth conversion of PriusBlue was undertaken in public April of 2006 at the Inaugural Maker Faire to help enhance the documentation and help promote PHEVs in the pacific northwest and midwest.
At this time there are two common conversion methods for the Prius. The #Original CalCars Method used in Rons PriusPlus History, EnergyCS, Amberjac, EDrive, and Hybrids-Plus conversions replace the stock battery with a new simple string. The second #Hybrid-Pack Method is used in the new PriusPlus, PiPrius, and by the Hymotion conversions. This second method should be easily adapted from the '04+ Prius to the Classic '00-'03 Prius, Escape, and other Hybrids as they use a hybrid battery pack configuration which uses both a new simple string and the original stock batteries. The new PriusPlus and the PiPrius projects moved to the #Hybrid-Pack Method in order to remedy the CCL Conundrum. Both types, of course, use a Battery Chargers to recharge from the grid. Toyota has warned that such conversions may adversely affect your Warranty.
The Prius PHEV TechInfo page has a lot of technical information on the Prius which may be useful when designing a PHEV conversion. See the Terms page if you aren't familiar with some of the underlying principals or acronyms used through the documentation. Also be aware of the Disclaimer should you be considering a conversion yourself. This PriusDisMan.pdf (Media:Priusdisman.pdf from http://www.airlabcorp.com/Prius/priusdisman.pdf) might be handy for its dismantle and safety warnings
Prius Conversions Chronology
For a more detailed chronology of Prius (and other vehicle) conversions completed since CalCars' first one in November 2004, including pictures, locations and contact information of the owners, see where-phevs-are at CalCars.org. The Google http://rechargeit.org site has a map of PHEV vehicles, this http://www.frappr.com/phev was an early attempt at mapping PHEV's and EV's, and the http://www.pluginmap.org site has charging stations.
Add A Vehicle
Chris Ewert has generously volunteered to collect and organize these lists. Please send him information in the format listed below. Send corrections and updates to chris [at] infolaunch.com (Chris Ewert) and copy to info [at] calcars.org.
- OWNER/SPONSOR Name and URL by CONVERTER
- MONTH/YEAR
- CITY/COUNTY/STATE
- Contact email address *
- *(if the contact wants an anti-spam email address like info [at] name.com, please indicate that, or if the contact wants to be unlisted but is still willing to provide that info to CalCars (you won't regret it), please send it with that notation.
Please also feel free to edit this page right now with additions or corrections and we'll be sure to forward those changes on the Chris and CalCars.
Current Vehicles
per http://www.calcars.org/where-phevs-are.html
- -1. Historic - History of this website, the EAA, Hybrids, CalCars, Plug-in Hybrids, and more...
- 0. 1993-present - Dr. Andrew Frank from the University of California, Davis and his Team Fate.
- Fall 2004 - CalCars PRIUS+/Ron Gremban by Ron Gremban, EnergyCS and CalCars team
- Mar. 2005 - EnergyCS by Greg Hanssen, Pete Nortman and team
- May 2005 - Energy CS/Clean-Tech by EnergyCS
- Sept. 2005 - Amberjac Projects Ltd UK, by (Amberjac/EnergyCS)
- Feb. 2006 - Hymotion by Hymotion
- Mar. 2006 - Electro Energy by CalCars and Electro Energy
- Mar. 2006 - South Coast Air Quality Management District by EnergyCS
- Apr. 2006 - CalCars/Felix Kramer by EnergyCS
- Apr. 2006 - Sacramento Municipal Utility District by EnergyCS
- Apr. 22-24 - Ryan Fulcher of the Seattle EVA by CalCars and the Maker Faire team
- May 2006 - City of Santa Monica by EnergyCS, (Los Angeles County, contact rick.sikes [at] smgov.net)
- July 2006 - Pacific Gas & Electric/Bay Area Air Quality Management District by EnergyCS, (San Francisco County, contact sxtg [at] pge.com
- Aug. 2006 - Hourcar by Hymotion, (Twin Cities, MN, contact info@hourcar.org)
- Aug. 2006 - Southern California Edison by EnergyCS, (Los Angeles County)
- Aug. 2006 - South Coast Air Quality Management District #2, by EnergyCS (Los Angeles County)
- Sept. 2006 - '06 Prius for State of Colorado, Energy Office (Denver CO) by Hybrids-Plus (hybrids-plus.com)
- Sept. 2006 - Manitoba Hydro by EnergyCS, (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
- Sept. 2006 - Veridian Corp. by Hymotion, (Ajax, Ontario, contact dhillsmilligan [at] veridian.on.ca)
- Oct. 2006 - Chelan County (WA) Advanced Vehicle Initiative's "WhiteBird" was converted with the second PiPrius kit, (Contact Ron Johnston-Rodriguez: info [at] plugincenter.com or (509) 663-5159)
- Oct. 2006 - Costar Corporation by Hymotion, Annapolis, MD contact kliestenfeltz@costar.com
- Nov. 2006 - Todd Dore of the Fox Valley EAA chapter, Prius GrayPearl was converted with the third PiPrius kit.
- Nov. 2006 - CalCars new PriusPlus conversion of Sven Thesen's 2005 Prius
- Nov. 2006 - Fairfax County, VA by Hymotion
- Nov. 2006 - Idaho National Laboratory of US Department of Energy by EnergyCS
- Nov. 2006 - Idaho National Laboratory of US Department of Energy by Hymotion
- Dec. 2006 - DUAL PWR-PHEV by Horacio Calvento, Long Island, NY (contact: mrbigh at gmail.com)
- Jan. 2007 - Jim Fell, Peterborough, England PFC40 conversion with 56 x 90ah Thundersky cells named FellUK.
- Feb. 2007 - Bay Area company by Hymotion (first car)
- Feb. 2007 - Bay Area company by Hymotion (second car)
- Feb. 2007 - GreenTomato Cars, (Amberjac/EnergyCS), London UK
- Mar. 2007 - Southwestern utility by Hymotion (first car)
- Mar. 2007 - Southwestern utility by Hymotion (second car)
- Mar. 2007 - EcoFys, (Amberjac/EnergyCS) Maastricht Netherlands
- Mar. 2007 - Jim Tech Ltd, (Amberjac/EnergyCS) London UK
- Apr. 2007 - Chris Ewert, Wheaton, IL - first individual PriusPlus conversion with modified mounting method (contact: chris at infolaunch.com)
- Apr. 2007 - Private early adopter, (Amberjac/EnergyCS) Bradford
- May. 2007 - Philippi Family, Houston, TX - PriusPlus conversion with hinged battery box for access to spare tire. PriusPlus type conversion. 2007 Maker Faire Team HybridPlugs.com
- May. 2007 - Northern California water agency by Hymotion, contact info to come#
- May. 2007 - '07 Prius for Lithium Technologies (Plymouth Meeting, PA ) by Hybrids-Plus (hybrids-plus.com)
- May. 2007 - '07 Prius for private individual (Seattle, WA ) by Hybrids-Plus (hybrids-plus.com) Conversion3 gallery PHEV-30
- May 2007 - Private early adopter, (Amberjac/EnergyCS) through Toyota dealer, Kent UK
- May 2007 - eacon Energy, (Amberjac/EnergyCS) Loughborough UK
- May 2007 - Ecordis/Spinnovation, (Amberjac/EnergyCS) Amsterdam Netherlands
- May 2007 - Nilars' in house PriusPlus type conversion.
- July 2007 - Argonne National Labs - Prius by Hybrids-Plus (hybrids-plus.com) Conversion5 gallery PHEV-30
- July 2007 - Private individual in Rifle Colorado - Prius by Hybrids-Plus (hybrids-plus.com) Conversion6 gallery PHEV-30
- July 2007 - Raleigh NC, Progress Energy Corporation - 2005 Prius converted by Advanced Vehicle Research Center with Hymotion hardware. (contact: Mike.Ligett (at) pgnmail.com)
- Sept 2007 - Hybrids Plus in Boulder Colorado - Prius by Hybrids-Plus (hybrids-plus.com) Conversion8 gallery PHEV-30
- Sept 2007 - The Green Car Company delivered their first PiPrius conversion to King County.
- Oct 2007 - Private individual in Charleston SC - Prius by Hybrids-Plus (hybrids-plus.com) Conversion17 gallery PHEV-15
Newest Vehicles
- http://www.autobeyours.com/PHEV.htm - Steves salvaged "imwoody36 special" PHEVs Prii conversion is still a work in progress.
- http://priuschat.com/My-official-Prius-Plus-mods-thread-t26951.html, Jim the latest CalCars conversion done at the 2007 Maker Faire.
- http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/APRS-SPHEV.html Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, APRS Solar PHEV
- http://www.phevprius.blogspot.com Kent's salvaged special by www.autobeyours.com
- http://www.eVehicle.co.nz SynECO eVehicle Systems PRIUS PlugIN-2-GO!! (tm) PHEV upgrade
Original CalCars Method
General Disclaimer: (HV) (DC) injury or death hazard, use at your own risk, may void warranty. |
---|
HV (High Voltage) DC (Direct Current) Warning: Traction Battery Packs, Motors, Chargers, and other HV sources could cause serious injury or death if proper precautions are not taken while working on or around such High Voltage Direct Current sources. Use this information at your own risk: There is no warranty expressed nor implied and we are not liable for any of your past, present, nor future actions. Even should you perform these modifications to the letter you could still damage any number of components in your vehicle causing it to no longer function. Even if it appears to function properly your actions may cause it to self destruct with collateral damage to surrounding properties other than your vehicle. By utilizing these ideas and instructions in an attempting to enhance national security, reduce gas consumption, vehicle "emissions", your carbon footprint, or smog, you do so at your own risk & peril. Warranty: In performing some of these modifications you may void your warranty with the vehicles manufacturer. See also our My wiki:General disclaimer |
This conversion method was originally demonstrated by CalCars which replaces the OEM battery with a new higher capacity simple string of batteries. Ron's first PriusPlus History conversion used early proprietary EDrive technology. A later version of this method by CalCars attempted to exploit the State Of Charge Drift portion of the vehicles battery management routines in order to accomplish State Of Charge Manipulation with the use of a Battery Tap Emulator. However this attempt was unsuccessful due to the CCL Conundrum. As such further development of the Original CalCars method has been postponed while perusing the #Hybrid-Pack Method which has now been successfully implemented. A number of companies such as EnergyCS, Amberjac, EDrive, and Hybrids-Plus use this method with custom hardware which replaces the OEM battery management computer in order to dictate the SOC which is communicated to the rest of the vehicles computers. In doing so these conversions report a higher than normal SOC while in Charge-depleting mode in order to raise mileage by increasing the electric contribution to motive power. This higher than normal SOC also encourage more stealth mode and enables longer operation in Prius EV Mode. Once the new higher capacity battery pack is sufficiently depleted the system reports normal SOC values causing the vehicle to return to the normal Charge-systaining mode of operation just like a stock Prius. |
|
Hybrid-Pack Method
General Disclaimer: (HV) (DC) injury or death hazard, use at your own risk, may void warranty. |
---|
HV (High Voltage) DC (Direct Current) Warning: Traction Battery Packs, Motors, Chargers, and other HV sources could cause serious injury or death if proper precautions are not taken while working on or around such High Voltage Direct Current sources. Use this information at your own risk: There is no warranty expressed nor implied and we are not liable for any of your past, present, nor future actions. Even should you perform these modifications to the letter you could still damage any number of components in your vehicle causing it to no longer function. Even if it appears to function properly your actions may cause it to self destruct with collateral damage to surrounding properties other than your vehicle. By utilizing these ideas and instructions in an attempting to enhance national security, reduce gas consumption, vehicle "emissions", your carbon footprint, or smog, you do so at your own risk & peril. Warranty: In performing some of these modifications you may void your warranty with the vehicles manufacturer. See also our My wiki:General disclaimer |
The Hybrid-Pack method employs a Hybrid Battery Pack Configuration which has been used in the past as a solution which combines two battery banks in order to mask weaknesses in one or both resulting in a robust overall system. For example a high energy/low capacity and high capacity/low energy battery might be combined resulting in an overall high energy and high capacity resource. Hymotion was the first to employ this type of configuration followed by the new PriusPlus and PiPrius projects. These conversions mask the low capacity characteristics of the OEM battery with a higher capacity battery. While this higher capacity battery also has higher energy, keeping the OEM battery and it's support systems in place eliminates the need for a replacement Battery Management Computer capable of communicating with the rest of the Prius systems. For more core ideas surrounding this method see Prius PHEV Battery Options for more specific battery information.
This method exploits the State Of Charge Drift portion of the OEM battery management routines in order to accomplish State Of Charge Manipulation, but does not utilize a Battery Tap Emulator. The result is the ability to effectively change the target SOC from the normal ~60% to higher values which are more useful for PHEV applications. The Prius EV Mode can also be utilized for longer durations because SOC Drift is capable of maintaining an acceptable SOC value. A CAN device is required to acts as a Prius PHEV User Interface and management device. Such hardware/software will need to follow logic similar to that laid out by Prius PHEV Pseudo Code. The Latest PriusPlus and PiPrius conversions use hybridinterfaces CAN-View Scantool device which is currently available for 2004 and newer Prius, and may eventually be used in other Hybrids such as the Ford Escape Hybrid. You can take a look at Prius PHEV Photos which are available to help visualize parts of the conversion process.
Contactor Based
Ron and CalCars have demonstrated a working contactor and resistor based configuration in a number of vehicles.
See PriusPlus for the documentation of this type of conversion.
- Prius PHEV Battery Options#Contactor Based
- State Of Charge Manipulation#Contactor Based
- Prius PHEV Schematics#Contactor Based
- Documents from 2004 with information and considerations regarding various configurations.
- Good news: a hybrid-battery solution to the CCL conundrum
Ron Gremban - EAA-PHEV_Maillist:2006./5./5 & Y:187
PFC Based
Rich Rudman of [[Manzanita Micro] (http://www.manzanitamicro.com) and Ryan have implemented a conversion using an upgraded MM-PFC-30, named the PFC40H, as a DC-DC converter and charger. Rich has developed and is offering conversion kits.
Enginer Based
Jack Chen has implemented a conversion using a special designed DC-DC converter and controller made by Enginer (http://www.enginer.us), which monitors stock and PHEV battery SOC to determine conversion kit's discharge rate without CAN interface. This method can support both Gen 1 and Gen 2 Prius as well as other hybrids by adjusting output voltage and current. The interface (5 wires) to the stock vehicle is very minimum resulting in significant cost savings. AutomationTech Inc is offering complete conversion kits under $2000 in US.
See PiPrius for more details.
- Prius PHEV Battery Options#PFC Based
- State Of Charge Manipulation#PFC Based
- Prius PHEV Schematics#PFC Based
Electro Energy has successfully demonstrated a PFC based setup with NiMH during CalCars trip to DC.
- 2006.05.26 - financialnewsusa.com - Electro Energy Participates in Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle Demonstration in Washington, D.C. and Power Air Lists on Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Kits and Conversions
Comparison table: PHEV conversion and kit options for the Toyota Prius | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Maillist Resources
- Local List Archives
- Locally hosted EAA - Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle maillist
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eaa-phev/
- Related External List Archives
- News from CalCars.Org (a one-way "broadcast" update, 30+ messages/month, latest developments and news clips about PHEVs, CalCars, partnering groups)
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/
- PRIUS+ Plug-In Hybrid Conversion Group (discussion area for CalCars' PRIUS+ project, largely superceded by this group. Past postings viewable to non-members; attachments viewable by members only. Currently closed to new members.)
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/priusplus/
- An open forum on anything PHEV
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gridable-hybrids/
- http://www.greencarcongress.com - An online publications about green transportation options.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phev - "Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle World".
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cal_pv_phev - "photovoltaics + plug-in hybrids project at UC Berkeley".
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/edrivephev - PHEV and EDrive specific group.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HyMotion - PHEV and Hymotion specific group.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hybridsplus - PHEV and Hybrids-Plus specific group.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sprinter-phev - DaimlerChrysler Sprinter Van group.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/camryplus - Toyota Camry Hybrid conversion group.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Prius_Technical_Stuff Technical (non PHEV) Prius group.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETList - Electrifying Times Discussion Group