Re: WSJ: Getting 100 MPG Driving to Work In a Modified Toyota Prius
- From: "Alvin E. Toda" <aet@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 16:14:08 -1000
On Mon, 6 Aug 2007, Florida wrote:
EYES ON THE ROAD By JOSEPH B. WHITE
Plugging In to the Future
Getting 100 Miles Per Gallon While Driving to Work In a Modified
Toyota Prius
August 6, 2007
I drove to work one day last week in a prototype car that is either a
harbinger of a far more fuel-efficient future, or another in a long
line of technological insurgencies that will fail in the end to crack
the auto industry's century-old status quo.
The car was a Toyota Prius modified, by the addition of a 72.5
kilogram (160 pound) lithium-ion battery pack, into a so-called plug-
in hybrid capable of operating for as many as 40 miles almost entirely
on electric power alone. The battery pack is a product of
Massachusetts-based A123 Systems (www.a123systems.com) and its
recently acquired Hymotion Inc. subsidiary.
Here's how my drive to work went. I walked out of the house to where
the Prius was parked, close enough to my garage so that I could run an
extension cord from the wall outlet to a three-prong plug installed in
the car's rear bumper.
[photo: WSJ's Joe White tests a Toyota Prius modified by a lithium-ion
battery pack, to see if it can operate for 40 miles almost entirely on
electric power.]
I'd plugged in the car the night before, and by morning the lithium-
ion batteries installed in the trunk were charged up. I stuck a
plastic key fob into a slot in the dash, hit the "Power" button -- and
then hit it again, because I couldn't tell if the car was on. There
was no engine noise.
Once I had the on-off business sorted out, I put the car in drive and
silently rolled out into the street. And I continued to roll on
electric power. In a normal Prius, the gasoline engine kicks in once
you get past walking speed. In this car, the extra batteries allowed
me to keep rolling in electric-only mode at highway speeds. The
company estimates the electricity cost of an overnight charge to be
around 75 cents for 50 extra miles.
As I dodged fellow citizens in their last-century gas-only SUVs, I snuck glances at the Prius's information screen, which displayed my fuel consumption and the flow of power from the batteries and the gasoline engine. For most of my roughly 20-mile trip to the office, I appeared to be on electric-only power. Accelerating to merge with traffic, and avoid becoming a high-tech oil spot under a semi, I engaged the gasoline motor. But cruising was all-electric -- and according to the Prius's on board fuel consumption computer, I was cruising at 100 miles to the gallon. The only awareness I had of the power generation hand-offs between the gas engine and the lithium-ion batteries, or the lithium-ion batteries and the Prius's factory- installed nickel-metal hydride battery system was the videogame display in the dashboard screen.
My reaction to this experience, drawing on 20 years of covering the auto business, was: "Wow! Who wouldn't want this?"
It's the questions that come next that have been a problem for the auto industry: What does it really cost? Is it reliable? What about the warranty? (Toyota's stance on that last question is that anyone who modifies the Prius into a plug-in voids the warranty.) ------------------------------
Great article....
.
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