Posted by David T. Johnson on January 28, 2009, 10:23 pm
Harry Smith wrote:
>
>>
>>> We are talking with a Southern California Company (Jungle Motors)
>>> about a Prius kit which is claimed to provide 40 miles of electric
>>> only driving, up to 52 MPH.
>> The current Prius HSD *cannot* go faster than 42mph on electric
>> alone...
>>
> Elmo,
>
> True -- they have a couple of circuit boards that they say gets around that
> limitation. For us it is a deal breaker if they turn out not to be
> correct...
>
I don't know anything about 'Jungle Motors' but a Prius plug-in
conversion kit would have to consist of additional battery capacity, a
plug-in charger for the extra battery, and an override on the gasoline
motor start so that the electric motor could be the sole source of power
until the battery energy was used up. As it is right now, the battery
in the current Prius will run the car maybe a couple of miles and then
it will be discharged. A bigger battery could certainly power it up to
40 miles if it was big enough. A 40-mile range for an electric car
battery is well within the capability of current battery technology.
--
Posted with OS/2 Warp 4.52
and Sea Monkey 1.5a
Posted by David T. Johnson on January 28, 2009, 6:23 pm
Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
>
>> We are talking with a Southern California Company (Jungle Motors) about a
>> Prius kit which is claimed to provide 40 miles of electric only driving, up
>> to 52 MPH.
>
> The current Prius HSD *cannot* go faster than 42mph on electric alone...
I've seen this claim made before but I've never seen it documented
anywhere. The current Prius will go faster than 42 mph if the gasoline
motor does not start for some reason, as long as the electric motor is
capable of delivering sufficient power to support the speed (i.e. you're
not going uphill with four passengers). Also, the electric motor is
obviously active on the Prius at any speed as a boost so I can't imagine
what the mechanical or electrical basis for the "42 mph" limit would be.
Here's a link to an interesting simulation of the Prius planetary gear
system (aka the HSD).
http://homepage.mac.com/inachan/prius/planet_e.html
--
Posted with OS/2 Warp 4.52
and Sea Monkey 1.5a
Posted by Ike on January 28, 2009, 11:59 pm
Perhaps there's confusion regarding the ICE "running" and "turning". My
'04 has a ScanGauge and a fuel pump voltage indicator which shows the
ICE "turning" at 60MPH, though with my foot off the gas the fuel pump
turns off so the ICE is not "running".
Posted by David T. Johnson on January 29, 2009, 2:33 am
Ike wrote:
> Perhaps there's confusion regarding the ICE "running" and "turning". My
> '04 has a ScanGauge and a fuel pump voltage indicator which shows the
> ICE "turning" at 60MPH, though with my foot off the gas the fuel pump
> turns off so the ICE is not "running".
I think you might be right. From the simulation of the planetary gears,
it looks like the ICE crankshaft has to be turning if the car speed is
above 42 mph or the MG1 generator will overspeed. There doesn't have to
be any gas going to it, though, so maybe that's what they do...just have
it 'turning' but not 'running.' I wonder if there's a way that they
unload the compression by opening the valves?
--
Posted with OS/2 Warp 4.52
and Sea Monkey 1.5a
>>
>>> We are talking with a Southern California Company (Jungle Motors)
>>> about a Prius kit which is claimed to provide 40 miles of electric
>>> only driving, up to 52 MPH.
>> The current Prius HSD *cannot* go faster than 42mph on electric
>> alone...
>>
> Elmo,
>
> True -- they have a couple of circuit boards that they say gets around that
> limitation. For us it is a deal breaker if they turn out not to be
> correct...
>