I assume from your description then, that there were no changes to the standard computer control, and that from the TCH viewpoint, all it sees is it's own battery pack that tends to always be near the top limit of its normal charge range? (at least while the aux pack still has charge). What does the state of charge typically show? Do you find brake regen still occurring as often?

 

Andy,

Excellent questions, thanks.

Answers follow.


Yes, EXACTLY as you have surmised.

Various, usually high, often 7 bars, sometimes 8, a little less often very high when A/C is heavily used.

Note also: There is a driver operable switch to turn the unit on or off.

Generally, yes. Precisely, it would be difficult to discern.

 

So say you leave your house and drive on a level road with a full charge on the TCH battery pack and a full charge on the Enginer battery pack. Once the car is warm and the ice shuts down, which battery pack do you deplete first, the TCH or the Enginer? And the once that is depleted assuming you are still on the same road, will it automaticly switch over to the other remaining battery pack or will the ice come on. Also say you are on battery power and you give it a little too much throttle and the ice starts to run, it is putting charge back into the TCH battery pack only ot both? Then you back of the throttle and it goes back into battery power, if there is still a charge left in the enginer batter pack will it deplete that before the TCH battery pack? If you were willing to remove the spare tire would the enginer system fit in that space? The TCH is my only mode of transportation and am not sure about giving up what that much what little trunk space that I have now. Am just trying to understand how this all works. By the way, good luck in this project and thank you for posting the results. Rick

 

I remember in 2007 the Camry hybrid cost about $2400 more other than the Federal and State tax discounts.

Questions were ask back in 2007, is it worth it for the hybrid version. I read in some automotive magazine where they predicted it would take 5 to 6 years to recover the cost of the hybrid version.

Many of us drove our hybrids though the $4+ per gallon prices. That no doubt somewhat accelerated the hybrid recovery cost.

Looks like the plug-in lithium pack will be similar in cost recovery. The advantage is, that Jack can drive many miles just from the lithium pack before it auto switches to the NiMh factory pack.

With the added plug-in lithium pack, would be a better resale for his car. He may prefer to move the pack to a new Camry Hybrid if Toyota continues with their same 288 battery pack voltage.

 

Rickkop - I may simplify this, if I understand it correctly. The Enginer pack has it's own charger and don't use the car generator at all. Once the Enginer pack is depleted then it auto switches the hybrid back for normal use. Also the Camry factory pack is not charged at all from the plug-in Enginer charger.

Jack may add to this or correct me if i'm wrong.

 

Jimmy,

Thanks for joining the discussion. my thinking is similar to yours. See my comments, following:

True, but I always took a somewhat different view of the payback.

Most of the "payback" calculations in the press were based on a comparison to the price and fuel consumption of a base 4-cyl Camry with no optional equipment. I never thought that made any sense. I was not considering a sparsely equipped base 4-cylinder Camry. The base TCH was a much much better equipped car and had noticeably more power, and the TCH I got was a pretty "loaded" car. A much closer comparison would be to a comparably equipped V6. I was, in fact, considering a nearly exactly similarly equipped XLE V6. That car actually had a sticker price a few hundred more than the TCH. So, for me there was no cost penalty to be paid back. I was a few hundred ahead on cost from day 1, and the mpg advantage vs the V6 was greater, and when gas prices spiked, I was really ahead of the game.

The thought has occurred to me that the next time we see a gas price spike I'll probably be even more happy to have the plug-in unit than I am now.

True, but "switches back" wouldn't be accurate. See my upcoming reply to Rick

My thoughts exactly, or alternately I may consider moving it to a Lexus 250h if I'm in the chips, or to a Prius if I'm needing to economize more.

All true, except that "auto switches" would not be the best description of what happens. Again, see upcoming post.

Jack

 

Rick,

Important questions. I had the same questions at first. I have the answers now from a combination of info from the manufacturer and from my own experience.

Please see the following.

The car will draw charge from the Camry's own battery pack or replace charge there while simultaneously transferring charge from the auxiliary battery pack. As this occurs, the Camry pack's state of charge may sometimes go down a little and sometimes go up, depending on conditions and demands, but it will typically maintain fairly high levels. The state of charge in the auxiliary pack will only decrease. When the auxiliary pack is drawn down to a planned low level, the Enginer unit will stop transferring charge.

ICE may or may not come on, according to the Casmry's computer, just like normal.

TCH battery pack only

Yes, and possibly even if the ICE is running.

The box will not fit in the spare tire well, but the equipment will.

All of the batteries for the 4 KWH system will fit in the well, and some Prius conversions have been done that way. With all of those batteries in the well, some of the (smaller) pieces of equipment would still need to be mounted in the trunk.

All of the batteries and all of the other equipment for the 2 KWH system would fit in the spare tire well.

I also had some initial concern about the loss of trunk space. Before purchasing the system, I placed a collection of books and magazine files the same size as the unit onto the trunk floor and covered them with the mat to see how well I could live with that. You already know know how that worked out for me.

Also, as I have previously noted, the remaining trunk height is 14 inches which is almost as much as in my "big" car. For those occasional 14-to 20-inch tall items, there's always the rear seat area, with the seats folded down as necessary.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Jack

 

Jack,

As usual, I had my head under the hood again. I overlooked that we got the better deluxe body with our Camry Hybrid. Nicer interior, radio, chrome grill and other features just for the added hybrid price.

This Enginer plug-in pack really sounds promising, especially after reading lots of information from their homepage.

It's been only a few years ago that a Hymotion plug-in pack cost around $10,000. The Enginer plug-in pack at $3500 should have lots of sales due to their lower pricing.

Jimmy

 

And, big pluses for me were the ABS, traction control and vehicle stability control - all standard on the TCH.

The Enginer system does not have all of the complexities of the Hymotion system, but it has everything I wanted, and it sure seems to me to have more "bang for the buck," and from a systems standpoint it seems to adhere well to the KISS principle.

 

Is it removable? That is, can it be simply unplugged and lifted out for those trips where maximum trunk space is needed?

Did the quoted the price include installation?