HyMotion's PHEV battery lets you plug in your hybrid

However efficient hybrid vehicles become, you're still going to need a little bit of stop and go action to charge up the battery, and that means you'll be burning through some of that crazy expensive gasoline. But HyMotion is here to help with their new PHEV Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle), which adds an extra battery to your hybrid that can be charged from a regular wall outlet. Once you run out of juice on this li-ion secondary battery, you can resume normal operation, but for local travel you might be able to get by on mostly battery power, leaving that ol' gas pump nearly a thing of the past. The system, which works with the Ford Escape and Toyota Prius, is currently $9500, but only available to Government and fleet owners. HyMotion is hoping to have the price down to $5000 when the kit becomes available to the public in 12 months.

[Via gizmag]

[Mark @ Feb 24th 2006 11:21AM]

Even at $5000, you could spend that money on gas and get 50k miles. Add the cost of electricity and it becomes even less worth it

[Traveler @ Mar 16th 2008 7:01AM]

Very Important! Check this out:
http://capwiz.com/vectrix/issues/alert/?alertid=10636576&PROCESS=Take+Action

It guides you on how you can help get a law passed for a TAX CREDIT
FOR PHEV CONVERSIONS, it says "Important incentives for plug in
electric drive vehicles will be part of these discussions."

I was just researching the Vectrix electric motorcycle and stumbled
on it. It lets you write to your legislative representatives and I
wrote [alot] about wanting a tax credit for converting my 07'Ford
Escape Hybrid to PHEV!

How about that!

[Jjeff @ Feb 24th 2006 11:33AM]

On top of that, SOMETHING has to pollute in order to create the electricity to charge the cells...

[MBH @ Mar 11th 2008 2:49AM]

Hey DA, electic engines are 6 times more efficient than oil burning internal combustion engines, and mine will be charged by home Solar panels.....get a clue and give OPEC the finger...quit being such a short sighted SUV driving panzy.

[sarvinc @ Feb 24th 2006 11:37AM]

Last time I checked gas is still cheaper then electricity.

[Evan Brom @ Feb 24th 2006 11:39AM]

It's nice to know they are ripping off the govt..

[BlueLightBandit @ Feb 24th 2006 11:41AM]

Yes, but you're forgeting two things... first I can stick it to the gas stations that are overpricing things and second, there's a fancy tax writeoff for the purchase of a hybrid or electric vehicle that more than makes up for that five grand loss.

[SaWifi @ Feb 24th 2006 11:54AM]

This system hooked up too a few solar panels, would be nice.....or possibly a generator running those eco friendly corn fuels or french fry oil

[legodude @ Feb 24th 2006 11:55AM]

This is probably not economical yet, even at $5000 but it is a step in the right direction. I would much rather have my car use electricity from a nuclear plant than burn gas. Even if the electricity is produced via fossil fuels, it is probably marginally more efficient/less polluting than using the gas engine.

[Matty @ Feb 24th 2006 12:18PM]

Legodude is right, energy generated at power plants is much more efficient and less polluting than generating it inside a combustion engine in a car. Plus, as we increase the percentage of energy that we generate cleanly and renewably (solar and wind, possibly geothermal) the positive impact of plugging the car in instead of filling it up, becomes greater and greater.

[threEchelon @ Feb 24th 2006 12:19PM]

And how much pollution is produced in the production of the device?

[Zex_Suik @ Feb 24th 2006 12:31PM]

9K?!?! 5k?!?! WTH!? I think you're just paying for packaging and looks. If you want this on the cheap side do this:

1.GO to the local university and grab an electrical engineering student
2.Take the student to Fry's Electronics (or a big radio shack) and have him buy the right stuff to hook the batteries to your hybrid
3.Go to the battery store and buy a buncha lithium rechargeables and have the student hook em together
4. put the whole shebang into a big OtterBox and throw it in the trunk, plug it in
5. Give college student 200 bucks and a starbucks gift card.

still below 2K easy

[n8 @ Feb 24th 2006 12:33PM]

Yes, this isn't perfect, so let's just complain about it not being perfect and throw up our hands in dispair while pumping our cars full of the same stuff we have for the last hundred years, hoping to dear God that it doesn't run out in our lifetimes and that our generation don't have to suffer the effects of the global warming we've wrought. Our kids will live on Mars anyway!

Everything has to be developed to evolve. All technologies go through a period when the cost is high and they are not as efficient as existing technology. Why is it that criticism for environmental tech is always centered around high price and the environmental impact of alternatives when no one would make the same sort of criticism about plasma screens or HD-DVD drives? Never. Not once have I seen anyone say "gosh that HD-DVD sure makes video look purty, but I wouldn't want one because it takes too much energy to produce" or "that plasma screen at 54" is awesome, but because it costs $10,000 today we shouldn't even think about making anything like it ever again. It will always be too expensive for me to afford and I'd rather just have my old 20" CRT anyway."

[David @ Feb 24th 2006 12:40PM]

As a Prius owner, I think that another value to it is the fact that electric driving is much quieter and smoother.

[Rob G @ Feb 24th 2006 12:53PM]

This is the best thing since sliced bread. It is the next logical evolution of the hybrid. Of course you would never make up the cost of nearly $10,000 in fuel. My leather seats added cost but I still got them.

As far as pollution goes, the grid gets cleaner every day. Burning gasoline will never be renewable.

My SUV has 25,000 miles on it and my next vehicle will be a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle)

[Iceman @ Feb 24th 2006 1:03PM]

A second large battery will add "road-hugging weight", ruining your car's handling. It will also render your trunk useless. No thanks.

[Felix Kramer @ Feb 24th 2006 1:11PM]

I'm the founder of CalCars.org -- we're the advocacy and technology development nonprofit that did the first plug-in hybrid Prius. Read our FAQ to get answers to questions about the benefits of doing this, even on the national power grid that's half coal -- but most of all, its benefit if car makers do it themselves rather than our struggling along with expensive aftermarket conversions.

Here's what we posted at CalCars-News:

Hymotion, an Ontario, Canada company with offices in the US, has announced they're about two months away from offering conversions, initially for large fleet orders.

In the past month, we've seen the launch of the national Plug-In Partners Fleet Campaign and rapidly increasing support for PHEVs, further fueled by President Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative. Now this "independent commercialization" announcement, and any sales information we see in the coming months, add one more influence on car-makers to consider offering their own plug-in hybrids.
In addition to the information in the press release (below) and the downloadable fact sheets, the company has also told CalCars:
* Though they showed only the Prius at the Toronto Auto Show, they have a working Escape on the road now.
* They will soon announce more information on the batteries, being made to their specifications in Asia,
* The price for Prius systems is $9,500 for orders of 100 units, $6,500 for orders of 1,000.
* They have not released prices for Escape systems, but it will be considerably higher.
* They are beginning with fleet orders to accumulate durability test miles before selling to the consumer market at undisclosed prices.
* They have not provided information on warranty and other issues.
* They will announce installation locations in the coming months.
* They're also planning flex-fuel versions, but no information is yet available.

We'd make the following further comments.
* Lithium polymer cells are flat lithium-ion cells with the electrolyte embedded in polymer separators, which have some performance advantages, but have until now been more expensive than li-ion.
* Their system can be thought of as an "add-on" rather than a replacement. The new battery operates until it reaches a mostly-depleted level, then the car reverts to hybrid operation using the stock battery.
* It's a source of considerable satisfaction to us that we can leave it to Hymotion http://www.hymotion.com/products and EDrive Systems http://www.edrivesystems.com/faq.html (who until now were the only ones publicly working on Prius conversions), to differentiate themselves both publicly and to prospective customers, and to back up their performance expectations.

You can read a report, including comments that attempt to compare the two systems and reconcile conflicting information about net weight changes and range, at:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/02/hymotion_unveil.html98

[Herman @ Mar 28th 2007 12:50PM]

Hello Felix:I would love to talk to you on a similar gas/electri subject. Please get back to me, regards, Herman

[Benson Leung @ Feb 24th 2006 1:31PM]

Iceman... it doesn't render the trunk useless in the Prius. It occupies a small sealed compartment under the bottom of the trunk that usually isn't used by most Prius owners.

Most of the useable trunk space is retained.

As for road hugging weight... you must HATE it when you have a passenger in your car, don't you?

[dan marshall @ Feb 24th 2006 1:57PM]

True, electricity requires resources (gasoline, hydro). Seems the only sustainable option for provinding automobile electricity seems to be wind power...

'Stick it to the gas co'?.... Use wind.

[dan marshall @ Feb 24th 2006 2:25PM]

Also, consider the distribution of wealth worldwide. Japan, US, Europe, constitue the top users of resources. This distribution does not directly coincide with automobile usage, further likely to decouple with increase of third world societies' demands for automobiles. So why are the current targets of enviro-*friendly* autos to the rich? Even among the heavy-consuming nations, the proportions (albeit objectionable) of those who can afford *leather seats* to those who can not is, 50%? Wouldn't the real environmental benefit be creating an ADAPTER for existing gasoline-powered autos to use electricity, hydrogen, or even bio diesel, to be made available to everyone? Supplement the cost with health care funds and auto-air-care budgets- the money'll come back.

[Tamer @ Feb 24th 2006 4:47PM]

Why can't you plug any of the hybrids straigth from the factory? (Does any model support that?).
Also, I don't understand why you would need an extra battery pack... surely the battery pack is what makes this expensive.

[Brad @ Feb 24th 2006 4:51PM]

While this pluggable hybrid stuff is good and all, it can be improved on, that's a given. But my question is in regards to the life of the battery and how to dispose of it. If it lasts 5 years and then starts to go kaput and costs the same price to replace it, then it's definately not worth it. It could get even worse if the costs to dispose of it are great (both environmentally and monetarily). On the other hand, if it lasts for 15 years and the costs are very low to dispose of it, then it sounds like a viable solution especially if the electricity is coming from renewable/low-polluting sources.

[evo @ Feb 24th 2006 7:24PM]

I need one of these for my iPod.

[Bryan @ Feb 25th 2006 2:52AM]

^evo: you just make me choke on the beverage i was drinking. lol thanks a lot. that was funny!

[Lance Funston @ Mar 7th 2006 2:37PM]

This 30-50 mile all-electric range target seems to be one of the factors driving up the cost of these PHEVs. If they started with just a 5-10 mile range wouldn't that still give an enourmous mpg boost for most drivers and bring the battery cost and size down substantially? Where the Prius sucks gas is errands around town... exactly where PHEV makes the difference.

I just want to get down the hill to the freeway without the engine runnning and running to warm up the catalytic converter before I start really moving... (Toyota: PZEV is nice, but I think SULEV is perfectly acceptable, especially if I save gas and CO2, thank you!)

[Cramos @ Nov 14th 2006 12:30PM]

Bottom line: People are working towards renewable energy. Yes, some of it it overpriced, and most of these intergratable ideas really suck, but we're moving in the right direction. And to all who spend their time complaining about mediocre concepts, try using that creative brainpower you waste in your whining to, uh i dunno, come up with a better concept! Youre all nerds, right? Quit being lazy and do somthing creative!

... although i must say, this concept does kinda suck. ^_^

[Herman @ Mar 28th 2007 4:22PM]

Hello - does anyone remember(hardly) the GALT gas/electric automobile? Its been a while and we want to revive it now. Interested? Then join in. Regards, Herman

[Herman @ Mar 28th 2007 7:49PM]

confirmation ok?

[Traveler @ Mar 16th 2008 6:57AM]

Very Important! Check this out:
http://capwiz.com/vectrix/issues/alert/?alertid=10636576&PROCESS=Take+Action

It guides you on how you can help get a law passed for a TAX CREDIT FOR PHEV CONVERSIONS, it says "Important incentives for plug in electric drive vehicles will be part of these discussions."

I was just researching the Vectrix electric motorcycle and stumbled on it. It lets you write to your legislative representatives and I wrote [alot] about wanting a tax credit for converting my 07'Ford Escape Hybrid to PHEV!

How about that!

[Traveler @ Mar 28th 2008 9:45PM]

I have an 07' Ford Escape Hybrid and I love it. Now I'm looking into finding an electric motorcycle or electric bike. Imagine the ride in the open air on a country road with the quietness of electric power. If that sounds good check out these links:

http://www.electricmotorsport.com/store/ems_electric_motorcycle_gpr.php

http://electricmotorcycles.net/modules/wordpress/?p=252

http://www.killacycle.com/

http://www.quantya.com/

http://www.rmartinbikes.com/evd.html

http://shop.scootersaroundtown.com/product.sc?categoryId=4&productId=11

http://www.thunderstruck-ev.com/tsvehicles.htm

http://www.optibike.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=1&flypage=shop.flypage2&product_id=18&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=100

http://www.retrothing.com/2005/08/surgical_steel_.html

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-x.php

http://www.electricmoto.com/

http://www.iloveebikes.com/744.html

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/MotorcycleFuelEconomyGuide/index.htm

http://nycewheels.com/ohm-sport-electric-bike.html

- - - -

[Arthuro @ Oct 31st 2008 12:01PM]

Wasn't aware that EnergyCS' conversion kits are also available on the European Continent....

See http://www.spinnovation.com/