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May 01, 2007


Benjamin Bakhshi

This is a great step in the right direction.
A problem we have is that there are not enough hybrids out there to convert. I am a big believer that a major reason the American car companies are losing market share is because they failed to capitalize on the hybrid car market, unlike Honda and Toyota; which has make Honda and Toyota feel like more "all-around" cars, and can help their mainstream cars, Camry & Civic, sell more easily.
Being a great option to have on hybrids, these mechanics should work with large networking businesses, such as car dealerships, to offer an upgrade to existing hybrids, and additionally offer a warranty. Another opportunity might be in training mechanics on performing this mod, and sell parts around the US and world.

A walk-in mechanic that can do this upgrade and provide an additional warranty stands to do a lot of business in a place like the Bay Area where many carpool drivers have a Prius.

Oren Tirosh

As you point out, PHEVs are in a point on the spectrum between 100% electric and 100% fuel. In order to move further towards the goal of 100% electric point it might be a good idea to use less efficient fuel engines.

Yes, I said less efficient. As the all-electric range increases and places where you can charge your car become more available the percentage of electric miles will expand to a larger fraction of the total miles driven. The heavy fuel engine then becomes a burden in both mass and cost but you can't quite get rid of it even if you use it only a couple of times per year. Just like people pay for insurance they will pay for having this peace of mind - but they wouldn't want to pay too much for it.

In this case it makes sense to trade efficiency for cost and mass. It could still improve the overall energy efficiency by reducing weight and also the associated energy expenditure in manufacturing.

Gas turbines can have fantastic power to weight ratios and much lower part count than piston engines. The high and narrow RPM range make it difficult to drive the wheels directly but it is not a problem on a series hybrid. Simple gas turbines are not very efficient but as battery range increases we may reach a sweet spot where turbines become the backup engine of choice for PHEV before we go all electric.

Thomas Odenwald

EDrive is another company specialized on the Prius conversion. I'm a long-time supporter of calcars initiative, as soon as the conversion announcement came out I called them up.
My house is solar-powered and I have the vision to feed my surplus solar power into my PHEV. That could easily cover my commute.
Unfortunately the conversion price alone is 32,000 USD ...and I would still have to buy the car first.
Too expensive for me right now, but prices will hopefully come down soon; I will continue to watch that space.


Plug-in to charge the batteries pack or.... supercapacitors pack?

With characteristics of both batteries and capacitors, supercapacitors (also called electrochemical capacitors or ultracapacitors) could be used by utilities to regulate power quality. A capacitor is a device that stores energy in the electric field created between a pair of conductors on which electric charges of equal magnitude, but opposite sign, have been placed. A supercapacitor is an electrochemical capacitor that has an unusually large amount of energy storage capability relative to its size, when compared to common capacitors.

Leaders on this market at the moment are http://www.optixtal.com and http://www.maxwell.com

The competition with batteries it's just started.

Danya Golan

Dear Shai, I would very much like to assist you in your environmental project. Please advise what would be the best way to contact you.


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