I WANT TO TRY AND ADD MY OWN SECONDARY BATTERY PACK IN PARALLEL TO THE FACTORY BATTERY PACK.ANY IDEAS, ANYONE TRYED IT YET,??I KNOW THE HIGH VOLTAGE IS DANGEROUS. IT SEEMS IT WOULD WORK IF I USE A RELAY TO ACTIVATE OR DISCONECT IT. ANY ELECTICAL WIZZ'S OUT THERE...JOE

 

Turn off your Caps Lock. It is considered shouting online.

1. I doubt many people have tried this short of the companies trying to build aftermarket PHEV kits. [There is a guy on cleanMPG who I think has a bunch of car batteries in his honda insight but that's about as close as anyone has come]
2. LiIon batteries are pretty costly and you'd need a bunch of them
3. It WILL void your warranty.
4. It could destroy your existing Hybrid battery/system/vehicle if done wrong.
5. How would you charge this alternate battery pack?
6. I think it requires WAY more than a couple of relays as this is a very complicated computer controlled system.

If not for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, someone else undoubtedly would have done this already.

There is a reason those plugin hybrid kits are SOOOO expensive ($10,000+). Its not just buying some batteries (which on their own are costly) but the engineering to integrate into the existing system. If the plug in kits were $5,000 instead of $12,000 I might consider it.

 

It would be nice to know more about this matter.I think if all the factory batterys are wired to a single higher voltage point it would be sort of easy ,but if each of the small batterys go thru a electronic maze of dioids or resistors or something then it would be out of my league. Someone must know...HELP!!!...JOE

 

Yes, anything is possible butttttttt!!!!! It's not a project to tackle if you're not experienced with considerable voltages and the logic of the system you are trying to integrate.
Check out: www.99mpg.com

 

The Seattle EVA are working on an "open-source" DIY plug-in conversion kit for the Prius with an opening price of $3,000 for all the parts and instructions. This is for the PbA version, the NiMH version would be more expensive.

But just to reiterate, only very competent well-trained electricans should attempt working with high voltage DC.

 

I have been e-mailing Hymotion and not recieved any response. They thought by october 06 a kit would be available

 

Hi Joe,

I have an NHW11, 03 Prius and would like to know, why?

If you have a problem with your current mileage, I would recommend first getting improved performance with your stock vehicle. Once you've reached the top 10% of all vehicles in the GH database, then vehicle power modifications begin to make more sense.

I have a Prius Classic, an NHW11 03 Prius, and before making major power modifications, I needed to make sure the stock vehicle was performing at peak performance. It does no good to go "plug-in" if the car is operated with the 'parking brake on.'

Bob Wilson

 

There is a another site yuo can check out as well. I believe its a private individual who has tried what out what you want to do.


www.privatenrg.com

It is a very informative site.


Also, one thing you will want to consider if you do end up adding additional batteries. I can't remember where specifically but there is some engineering limitation with lubrication as the cars were not designed to go further than 2-3 miles on EV mode. I believe the grade of the lubricants is the issue.