Did you know that there's a Toyota Prius that can get 230 MPG? (no darlin' that was not a typo). That's right - a 500% increase in fuel efficiency over the standard Prius. The people that did it are running behind schedule, but are tryin' to get set up so they can hack your Prius for around $12,000.
Remember the 70's? No, I'm not talking about the gas lines. Oh, I'm not talking about buying gas on odd or even days either.
Remember the hot rod guys? They fixed up cars to make them faster and louder than stink. Well, the new wave of car tinkering is following the example of hobbyist engineers like Ron Gremban and they're converting hybrids into plug in hybrids.
According to News 'n' Shit's 2005 article (gah I love saying that!) Gremban added 18 electric bicycle batteries to his Prius and now he plugs the sucker into the wall and his car uses up the batteries before it ever even flips on the gas part of the hybrid system.
He's averaging 80 miles per gallon.
But what's available now? Well a little search shows our hero as one of the principals of a cool start up in Silicon Valley, CalCars. It appears that there are now quite a few of these little gems and the batteries are stored on the floor of the trunk. Most importantly, these babies are getting over 100 Miles Per Gallon.
I'm pretty handy with a tack hammer and nails. I've even installed dimmer switches and ceiling fans but I'm still thinking that I'm totally unqualified to modify my own car. Plus, I'd be waaaay scared of ruining it. There's good news though. In the last few years a bunch of vendors have popped up and maybe you want to give them a try and modify the hybrid you already have. The guys at CalCars warn you that individuals can't easily buy production line plug-ins yet…. Well guys, since when has anything worth doing been easy?
Speaking of not easy, there's this handy little wiki site for the engineer in the family. What I was able to decipher was:
Blah blah blah blah Pruis blah blah blah you won't have to pay for gas blah blah If you didn't spend so much time ditching school and playing at the beach you'd understand this blah blah blah blah Wow, it doesn't void the warranty! blah blahThe prospect of a plug in Hybrid is ridiculously exciting to me. The thought of mass production makes me shiver. In the interim Do It Yourselfers will continue to have all the fun.
Further Reading:
