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Modified Prius gets up to 180 Miles Per Gallon

Posted by timothy on from the oh-what-I-wouldn't-give-for-that-in-my-subaru dept.

shupp writes "The NY Times (free reg. required) reports in that some folks are not content with the no-plug-in rule that both Honda and Toyota endorse. By modifying a Prius so that it can be plugged in, Ron Gremban of CalCars states 'I've gotten anywhere from 65 to over 100 miles per gallon'. The article also reports that 'EnergyCS, a small company that has collaborated with CalCars, has modified another Prius with more sophisticated batteries; they claim their Prius gets up to 180 mpg, and can travel more than 30 miles on battery power.'"

2 of 907 comments (clear)

  1. I own a prius, so don't get me wrong... by SuperficialRhyme · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not trying to bash what these guys have done - but isn't plugging it in and then looking at MPG very decieving?

    On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how the $/mile stack up to see whether or not a plugged in prius can be more efficient in terms of cost.

  2. Pure Electric is Close by BoRegardless · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The book "The Bottomless Well" noted that if you get batteries good enough, meaning light enough and small enough volume, able to travel for a normal day's travel (say 250 miles) & inexpensive enough, to fit in a car that you can potentially drop your cost per mile for power to 10% of that using gasoline today.

    How? Off peak power now at night (when stationary power plants would love to sell you power) is $.03-$.04 per KWHr, versus about $.40/kwhr for gasoline.

    Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTI) received 2 patents on a way to make Li-ion batteries that charge in minutes and hold 3 times the charge in January 2005, and Fujitsu just announced they will start shipping batteries probably licensed under this patent in 2006.

    All-electric cars are FAR FAR closer to practicality than people think because of these dramatic technology breaththroughs.