MN, I'd encourage you to try out PHEV'ing on the stock pack before you decide whether to install additional capacity.
Today's trial confirms the conventional wisdom that plugging in a mild hybrid makes a very poor EV.
Longer trips give you a much wider selection of when you want to use your assist. If I had used it just for accelerating today, I'd have come home with a mostly full battery. If I had waited for the thermostat to open, I would have hardly used assist at all.
Brief description of Peter's joystick placement:
New MIMA Thread (all MIMA discussion goes here) - Page 53 - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum
How many cells fit aft of the IMA box? About six on each side. But that's a crumple zone, and it gets used often enough from what I've seen. Another reason to avoid putting cells that far back is it will mess with your center of mass, crosswind stability, and yaw intertia.
Where do you go to price out cells? Nissan allegedly pay $375/KWh! The stuff I've seen is $600/KWh for crap Chinese cells, even when you buy 50 cells at a time.
I did something with MIMA the other day that I REALLY enjoyed. It usually takes me up to three miles to get warmed up and into LB on 40mph roads. I entered LB in under a mile the other day, by giving it enough gas to cruise at 50mpg and using regen to hold my speed down. There's no better time for regen than when the engine's cold.