A123 Systems Nanoposphate batteries, the same battery company used for the Hymotion Prius plug-in conversion
The KillaCycle, ridden by Scotty Pollacheck, made drag racing history AGAIN at Bandimere Speedway October 23rd, 2008. 7.89 s @ 168 MPH is a new official record and makes KillaCycle to the world’s quickest electric vehicle of any kind!
The A123 Systems Nanoposphate batteries are changing the entire landscape for electric vehicles, and battery-powered devices in general.
Popular Mechanics did a review of the Hymotion battery system.
Is 100 MPG Possible with A123 Systems Hymotion Kit?
Here is my answer. It was easy. I got this result on my second attempt after about 3 days of experience driving with a Hymotion battery.
Over 100+ mpg for 22 miles
Here is the video after 17 miles of the test:
If anyone is interested or if you know someone who might be interested, please forward the following links to your friends.
Starting October 31st (next Friday) an Ebay auction will begin for a brand new 2009 Toyota Prius (Spectra Blue) package #6 with the Hymotion battery system installed.
This plug-in conversion makes the Toyota Prius capable of 25 to 50 miles of boosted electric range, depending on driving style and terrain.
This 2009 Toyota Prius, with Hymotion battery, will be on display at the Seattle Auto Show from November 5th through 9th.
All profits from this charity auction will be donated to Plug In America. Plug In America is a nonprofit organization set up to promote the use of EVs and PHEVs. It was founded by a dozen EV drivers in California, many who appear in the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? directed by Chris Paine.
(link to auction info)
2009 Plug In Prius Hybrid!
(link to the Ebay store where The Green Car Company sells vehicles)
eBay Store – the green car company: Volkswagen, Coupe, Cabrio
(link to the Hymotion website confirming The Green Car Company as an installer of the Hymotion battery)
The Hymotion plug-in battery system has been crashed tested, does NOT void your Toyota warranty and comes with a 3 year warranty from Hymotion.
Tesla Interior
Tesla Interior
These are some of the best interior shots I have seen of the finished production version 1.5 Tesla.
This is what we have been waiting for.
Tesla Motors CEO Talks Cutbacks, IPO
After the first day of driving the Hymotion Prius with an engine block heater (EBH), as expected it definitely did improve my results. The gas engine did not come on nearly as much during the early periods.
I am still learning my SGII, so it is really tough to quantify these results so far. The temperature outside this morning was 40 degrees F, so it was a very valid test. My car is garaged, so it doesn’t take much to preheat it.
To properly evaluate the difference, I really should drive a few mornings without the EBH and gather data. The problem is, I don’t want to. 🙂 It really pains me to waste the gasoline. I want my consumption screen solidly at 99.9 for this entire tank of gas and I want to put up a crazy number of miles driven when I refill.
I am at 140 miles on this tank and it still shows a full tank with 10 bars.
I don’t think I set the SGII properly during the refill though.
Anyone who has a Hymotion battery, these are two must have items.
1) ScanGauge II
2) Engine Block Heater
The SGII has easily improved my performance by 20%. Just having the knowledge of when the RPMs are running is the key for me. I cannot always feel it with the road vibration at 30 mph to 35 mph when the engine turns on. The RPM number is critical to helping me keep it in EV mode and just under the ICE threshold speed.
With Hymotion the engine only idles during warm-up, the wheels are powered pure EV.
For a rough estimate, when idling, the Toyota Prius is drawing about 0.30 gallons per hour. So if the ICE needs to run 6 minutes to warm-up during early driving, then the gasoline consumption is about 0.03 gallons. At $3.00 per gallon that is about 9 cents of gasoline.
The energy meter told me that for 2 hours the EBH draws about 0.8 kwh. I pay about 9 cents per kwh. So that is about 7 cents of electricity.
9 cents of gasoline vs 7 cents of electricity
So financially it is not not really worth it.
From a satisfaction standpoint and to really push my efficiency to a new level, it is worth it.
If given a choice, I would rather use electricity for everything.
Today I had a Toyota Prius Engine Block Heater installed.
For those of you who have experience driving a normal Toyota Prius, you will notice that the gas engine will run when you first start the car. Even if you are trying to drive softly to keep the Prius in EV mode, the engine comes on for a few minutes. This is automatic to raise the operating temperature of the engine to a certain level.
After a few minutes of the engine running, the engine temperature reaches a certain level, then it is much easier for the Prius to slip into EV mode.
With a Prius that has the Hymotion battery, the most gasoline you consume all day is the gasoline during this early warm-up. If not for this warm-up phase, it is feasible for the Hymotion Prius to never use gasoline. So while the Hymotion system is amazing, it can even MORE amazing if this early gasoline consumption can be reduced or eliminated.
So I purchased an Engine Block Heater. It cost $59. It is also easy to install.
I have also put the Engine Block Heater on a programmable timer and scheduled it to preheat the engine from 6 am till 8:10 am. I typically leave the house at 8:10 am each morning to drop the kids off at school on my way to work. I have also placed an energy meter on this outlet to measure how much electricity is consumed during the preheat time.
I will attempt to make a rough estimate of the gasoline savings vs the electricity consumption.
So Tuesday 10/21/08 will start the testing to see how much this improves on the Hymotion system.
Hymotion 2nd pure EV test
The picture I have added is my 2nd pure EV test on 10/11/08. The final result was 22.5 miles before the Hymotion battery gave out. This is a slight improvement over my 1st pure EV test which resulted in 20.0 miles.
My speed was typically 30-35 mph the entire run.
Here is a short video. I apologize for the wobbling. It was a camera video and I was driving at the same time.
Toyota Prius on Hymotion Steroids
Let me say this first. I was estimating on 10-15 miles in all EV mode based on the Kwh used in the official testing and the 30-40 mile official estimated range in highway mode driving. All I can say is that I’m just completely blown away with the results below.
Highway speeds.
For my highway test I started my stock State of Charge (SOC) at %60 and I set cruise control to 55MPH. The Hymotion pack had a full charge and I did not turn it on until I set my cruise control, reset the trip B and reset my trip on my ScanGauge. The AC was off too. Once everything was set I turned on the pack. I used route 52 from Wheelersburg Ohio to about South Point Ohio where I turned around. I tried making elevation profiles but since the highway was next to the hills it looked like I was climbing 200 feet when I was actually on pretty level terrain with only slight elevation changes. Before I get to my results I have to tell you that about %75 of the trip was at 55MPH, %20 was at 45MPH or less due to construction and %5 was at a dead stop due to construction. Because of this and the GPH bug in the ScanGauge my total MPG at the end of the trip was a little low.
The first 40 miles the pack was able to keep the car going at 100+MPG. When I reached the 40 mile mark the next 10 miles was 70+MPG. The pack quit with 50.7 miles showing on the trip B. If you recalculate it by taking out the construction zone and a little stop and go driving I believe I can estimate a total distance of about 55 miles with cruise control. My ScanGauge showed 101MPG but I can estimate it more in the 125MPG area because of the GPH bug. According to my CAN-View the pack Ah size was about 17.5Ah.
So lets review highway with cruise control set at 55mph.
Actual Distance – 50.7
Estimated Distance – 55 miles
Actual MPG According to SG – 101MPG
Estimated MPG Because of SGII GPH Bug – ~125MPG
Estimated Pack Size – 17.5Ah
Amount of Electricity to fully charge – 5541.2Wh
City all EV mode.
For this test I started my SOC out at %60, reset my trip B, and enabled EV mode. I ran this test with no AC but had front driver side and rear passenger side windows cracked. I limited my amps to about 50-60 when accelerating. I tried to stay around 32MPH with a constant draw of about 20 amps to keep speed. I tried not to pulse and glide but I did try to time the lights so I could keep my stopping to a minimum. This test was done around the city of Portsmouth and New Boston Ohio. Terrain was relatively flat since all the roads are near the Ohio river. If you want to know the elevation profile of the route just look at my commute elevation profile ( located above ) between mile 6 and mile 10. This will be very accurate as there were no hills in the city that I had to ascent or decent.
The first 25 miles was all easy EV mode. The engine did not come on at all. Right after about 25 miles EV mode canceled and the engine started. Apparently the stock SOC dropped to %45 and canceled EV mode. I think this is a side effect of how the Hymotion battery works. I think all the energy comes from the stock pack and the Hymotion pack is feeding it. I pulled over in a parking lot and put the car in park. I watched as the SOC slowly climbed to %50, %55, then %60. I then took off again in EV mode. I watched as the SOC dropped again to about %50. I pulled over again and let the SOC come back up. I did this a total of three times between mile 25 and 33. Once I reached about 33 miles the Hymotion pack gave up. The CAN-view was showing I used about 18.5Ah
So lets review city driving with EV mode only.
Actual Distance – 33 miles
Estimated Distance – 25 good easy miles. 33 miles if you work at it.
Fuel used – Technically 0
Estimated Pack Size – 18.5Ah
Amount of Electricity to fully charge – 5295.7Wh
Wh per mile – ~160Wh
Peak Oil Garage 