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Originally Posted by zimbop
By this I mean like ten or fifty times the battery power it now has so it could go 20-50 miles on its own without running the engine.
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That much battery capacity adds a lot to the weight of the car, and would probably leave you with very little trunk space. Carrying all that weight around would hurt FE significantly. There's no free lunch. The HCH simply was not designed so it can be a PHEV. The electric motor has only 20 HP, barely enough to move the car at a constant speed at 20
MPH on a flat road.
Once lithium batteries become rugged and safe enough for automotive use it may be possible. There are after market upgrades of the Prius to PHEV, using lithium. The HCH in its current generation won't cut it.