I think it takes about 9-10 hours to get the SOC up into the high 90%'s.

Then the charger cycles on and off every few minutes to "balance" and top off the battery, it's not continuous the last couple of hours. So hours is not an accurate way to measure... you really need a meter.

Yeah... if gas is $3.00 and you average 30 MPG... that's $0.10 a mile.
If you can pull out the stops ( in a FEH ) and get 40 MPG, thats still $0.075 per mile. So electricity costs less as long as you get fewer than 75 MPG. Of course you will never get back the price of the batteries at today's prices. But "in theory" 75 MPG is the tipping point.

 

This report is priceless. It reflects that Americans can compete with the best. Hopefully Hybrids Plus can somehow connect with a larger "contract" to continue pursuing a dream and excellence. Shall we add, independent of political voices.

 

Now all we have to do is figure out how to get the battery pack below $8K

 

On other forums there are some times offers for a "power buy".

What this means is a lot of folks want something and someone connected works out a deal to buy a bunch of them and then one at a time those interested buy theirs from the one source that started the power buy.

I guess my question is ..... would the guys in CO be interested in offering a power buy to us here and what would the final cost be?

If we had enough takers it might be worth looking into. However it would have to be around 1/3 of the current $35,000 cost to be even worth doing IMO. So I guess I would like to know how many would they have to sell to get to this price?

Another question is how many here would be interested in something like this IF it cost $13,000?

 

I am not any sort of company spokes person.
This is ONLY MY OPINION.

Bulk Buy is not really an option... unless we are talking 1000's of cars, not dozens. It's a matter of materials cost, not labor, or profit margin.

Yes, this year they have substantially reduced the labor, and time to produce each pack... And their PCB's are made by robot now, not soldering iron... but the actual cost of the battery cells has not come down... and demand keeps going up.


Would they talk about knocking $1k or $2k off if "we" bought 10, probably.
It occurs to me that each individual should look into tax incentives also.
In Colorado, you CAN get tax breaks for a PHEV conversion.
Here's the tax loophole, and Hybrids Plus says it works:

Colorado gives you a tax credit based on 75% or 85% ( based on year ) of the "incremental price difference" of your hybrid car, and the price of the most similar non-hybrid car. Ford gave the state these numbers, basically saying this was the price of the hybrid conversion.
Ford Escape Hybrid
2005 Ford Escape (Front Wheel Drive):
Incremental price difference $3,245
Tax credit available $ 2,758
2005 Ford Escape (Four Wheel Drive):
Incremental price difference $3,290
Tax credit available $2,797
2006 Ford Escape (Front Wheel Drive):
Incremental price difference $3,325
Tax credit available $ 2,826
2006 Ford Escape (Four Wheel Drive):
Incremental price difference $3,360
Tax credit available $2,856
2007 Ford Escape (Front Wheel Drive):
Incremental price difference $2,285
Tax credit available $ 1,942
2007 Ford Escape (Four Wheel Drive):
Incremental price difference $2,320
Tax credit available $1,972
2008 Ford Escape:
Incremental price difference $4,020
Tax credit available $3,417

Now... if you buy your PHEV new from Hybrids Plus for $66,000, the incremental cost of your Hybrid "upgrade" compared to the most similar non-hybrid is $40,000.

You can claim a $40,000 tax credit, legally. The State of Colorado is aware, and they don't care because so few people will do this... and at the same time, they do want to promote the technology. The State will not pay you cash back, but in all likelyhood, a $40,000 tax credit will reduce your tax liability to zero, and you will pay zero state tax this year. YOU CAN ROLLOVER CREDITS FOR 5 YEARS! So you probably won't pay any state tax ( unless you are really rich ) for 2, 3, or 5 years.

YOU MUST DO THIS WHEN THE CAR IS NEW!
( conversions of 5 year old hybrids you already have do not qualify )

Bad side, you gotta pay the $66,000 up front. Good side, you get an 85% ROI in 5 years.
Not a bad deal, if you can afford to do it, but the State know as of now, not many can afford to do it.

P.S. No, Hybrids Plus is NOT an authorized Ford dealer, but in Colorado you have 60 days ( I think ) to get your car registered, and as long as you have your PHEV conversion done before you register, it's all legal. So buy your FEH from any dealer, and get it converted within 60 days and you can do this. IF YOU PAY TAXES IN COLORADO AND REGISTER YOUR CAR NEW AS A PHEV IN COLORADO.

BTW, the Governor's office owns a PHEV Prius built by Hybrids Plus. Do you think the State was able to give themselves a tax break???

Ain't this a great state?

 

Looks like these people did www.LionEV.com

Don't know much about them or if their clam is ture, but they say 140 mpg city and 40 mpg highway with their conversion.

AND according to the Hybrid-Plus website their cells are Lion as well.

 

The cost factor to convert the Escape Hybrid to PHEV is still ultra-expensive. I could not tell the difference between Hybrid-Plus version and this "new" vendor's version. However, the website at this location: http://www.lionev.com/LionEV_PHEV.html states

The original HP rating of 155 is boosted to almost 250Hp for towing and passing conditions.

I did not see any information on the warranty or first hand report.

 

This looks like they are advertising the ICE + EV power together (read: EV assist) While more battery capacity would help this scenario occur, I wouldn't expect 250HP unless you're all the way into the throttle. That's pretty counter-intuitive for the main reason for converting to PHEV, IMO.

If you want more powerful Escape (and you're not looking to be green ), try this: http://www.kennebell.net/supercharge...pe-tribute.htm.