hackers make hybrids worthwhile

money.cnn.com...

just read this on cnn. these guys hack the prius, and make it get 100mpg. Why doesn't toyota do this? i drive an old vw golf diesel, that consistntly gets 51 mpg, and theres no technology involved. Besides making tons of money off of people thinking they'll making the savings in gas or peope thinking they'll protect the evironment, why would toyota not give us the 100mpg car right away, and at least impress us with something worth while. Come on, why dont they just tell us you can plug the car in with a cord they supply and double your fuel milage from the factory?

Originally posted by short
why would toyota not give us the 100mpg car right away, and at least impress us with something worth while. Come on, why dont they just tell us you can plug the car in with a cord they supply and double your fuel milage from the factory?

Maybe it requires a lot of electricity to 'charge' the car thus you won't really be saving money or off setting your emissions. Also, if one of these PHEV kits costs around $10,000 dollars (assuming a profit markup of 20% thus making the total cost $12,000 dollars) they would have to tack that onto the price tag. The Prius is aimed toward the average joe wanting to save on fuel costs - not people who can afford $10,000 dollar options.

He's fundamentally changed the type of car it is.

hacked his Prius by replacing the battery with a lithium-ion version and adding a system that plugs into an ordinary 110-volt socket.
After charging in the garage overnight, the souped-up Prius gets about 100 miles per gallon

People wouldn't buy a car that gets a 100 miles a gallon if they had to "plug it into a socket". Its not toyota's fault, its the public's fault.

[edit on 14-7-2006 by Nygdan]

Originally posted by Nygdan
He's fundamentally changed the type of car it is.

hacked his Prius by replacing the battery with a lithium-ion version and adding a system that plugs into an ordinary 110-volt socket.
After charging in the garage overnight, the souped-up Prius gets about 100 miles per gallon

People wouldn't buy a car that gets a 100 miles a gallon if they had to "plug it into a socket". Its not toyota's fault, its the public's fault.

[edit on 14-7-2006 by Nygdan]

Whom are theses people that will not buy it? I would buy it. At 100 MPG the payback period doesn't seem so bad now. The price and volatility of the LiIon batteries needs to be dealt with. The hotter they get, the more prone they are to ... well ... erm ... explode.

What's so hard about plugging you car in overnight anyway? The only people who would bitch at that are lazy people.

BTW Both Toyota AND Honda are coming out with Plug-In hybrids(potentially with Flexi-fuel motors) by 2009-2010.

Here is a semi-related thread(about Biodiesel)

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Maybe it requires a lot of electricity to 'charge' the car thus you won't really be saving money or off setting your emissions. Also, if one of these PHEV kits costs around $10,000 dollars (assuming a profit markup of 20% thus making the total cost $12,000 dollars) they would have to tack that onto the price tag. The Prius is aimed toward the average joe wanting to save on fuel costs - not people who can afford $10,000 dollar options.

The reason why it costs so much atm is:

1. Car sized LiIon batteries are not being mass-produced yet and are thusly very expensive to manufacture atm. The price should come down within 5 years.

2. These are kits. Kits are usually more expensive then buying a car that was mass produced with a plug-in kit pre-installed.

So basically, the main issue with this technology is twofold: The explodability of LiIon batteries and lack of production capacity which inflates prices.

[edit on 14-7-2006 by sardion2000]

electricty in any quantity is actually one of the most expensive types of energy, so you need to calculate your electric bill in advance, or you're bound to be unpleasantly surprised.

cross reference