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Hymotion

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Revision as of 10:24, 16 March 2006 by Rjf (talk | contribs) (fixed links)
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Toronto, ON. February 21, 2006: Hymotion.com unveils Plug-in Hybrid Technology at the Canadian International Autoshow in Toronto to use Lithium Ion Polymer battery.

Initially, Canadian company Hymotion is offering the PHEV upgrade in two models: the 5kWh L5 for the Prius and the 12kWh L12 for the Ford hybrid SUVs. This innovation is not cheap, so the company is targeting fleet buyers before individual consumers. In quantities greater than 100, the Prius L5 is US $9,500; quantities over 1,000 drop the price to US $6,500. Other systems are under development for the Lexus RX400h, Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Per greencarcongress.com Plug-in Hybrid Kits
SystemHymotion L5Hymotion L12EDrive
Vehicle Toyota Prius Ford Escape Hybrid
Mercury Mariner Hybrid
Toyota Prius
Battery type Lithium-ion Lithium-ion Lithium-ion
Energy 5 kWh 12 kWh 9 kWh
Charge time 5.5 hrs / 4.0 hrs 12 hrs /6 hrs 9 hrs
Weight 72.5 kg 147.5 kg 113.4 kg
Estimated battery range 50 km (31 miles) 80 km (50 miles) 56 km (35 miles)
Estimated fuel economy (comb.) 100 mpg 60 mpg 100–150 mpg
Price $9,500 for orders >100
$6,500 for order >1,000
n/a $10,000–$12,000

So Hymotion can do $6,500 for 1000, $9,500 for 100 or more, and probably similar to the $10K-$12K of EDrive for an order of a single vehicle. They both go nearly the same distance at 31 vs 35miles, Hymotion is rated 5kWh and 40.9kg lighter than the EDrive at 9kWh, 1.8 times the energy at 1.56 times the weight.

While the battery type could make up the specific energy differance of 69Wh/kg versus 89Wh/kg the range discrepency is still odd. This could be due the SOC range used, though one would suspect that most of the capacity would be utilized as that's one of the things Lithium does well. Perhaps EDrive is being conservative on cycle depth, DOD, as I believe there is no stock battery to fall back on for HEV opperation in their case, while Hymotion could effectively discharge the additional Li pack till it fell off the end of it's abrupt discharge curve at 100% DOD, or 0% SOC.

Anyway, some Electric Conversion guys I know have mentioned that they think a simple "Hybrid battery", as it's known in the BEV world, type setup where a larger battery feeds the stock one would work, which Hymotion. seems to have confirmed. The PriusPlus or EDrive method still has the advantage of being able to replacing the stock NiMH battery with a far lighter Lithium flavored one!

Notice the trend towards the magical $500/kWh at 1000 units on the Hymotion battert packs, figure $1500 for the other hardware... This is about the cost of current mass production small form Li cells, who knows what happens to the cost once you ramp vehicle scale production into the millions? $250/kWh? $100/kWh? Keep in mind that something like the tzero with 6800 18650 cells is about 1000 laptops worth, so each PHEV might represent 200 laptops, 1000 cars = 200,000 laptops...