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Old 01-17-2012, 01:45 PM   #17 (permalink)
Ken Fry
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FXSTi View Post
I was wondering about the other side of this equation. Has anyone re-purposed the electric side of the Prius in an EV?
In one sense, there are loads of those. The plug-in hybrids that are based on the Prius are EV's when the gas engine is not running. They get about the same efficiency in terms of miles-per-kilowatt-hour (about 4) as a Leaf, or EV conversions of similar size.

I am not aware of anyone who is using just the motors from a Prius. That would seem to be difficult because the motors are so well-integrated into the transmission. There are other motors for EVs that are much easier to work with. Getting real efficiency data from a car manufacturer for something like the Prius motors is about impossible. However the actual efficiency of the plug-in hybrids when in electric mode suggests that they are no more efficient that many other electric motors.
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