Loading before leaving (any benefit to charging OEM hybrid battery before using?) - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

milnhir · 12-23-2009, 04:05 PM

Hello all id like to know, would it be nice to have Fully charged HV battery before you start driving your prius and would improve MPG or KPL

Then how could we charge and would it be practical ?

Or is there already a thread on this subject and i could not find it

RobertSmalls · 12-23-2009, 04:12 PM

Yes, a plug in hybrid uses less gas than one that's not plugged in. All the more so if you carefully use your kWh, and return home with a depleted battery.

I do not yet have a charger on my Insight, but I'd like to get one. I'm pretty sure you can buy PHEV conversion kits for the Prius, but I'm not aware of any off-the-shelf solutions for the Insight.

Daox · 12-23-2009, 04:43 PM

IMO the benefit would be tiny. The car's battery pack is very small, its not like we are talking actual EVs. The Prius' battery pack can't even haul you 2 miles at low speeds before the engine kicks in to recharge the pack.

If the battery pack were much larger, you'd see a benefit. Then we start calling them PHEVs though.

RobertSmalls · 12-23-2009, 07:36 PM

By my math, grid charging my 1KWh pack could save me around 0.04-0.06gal of gas per charge, depending on what depth of discharge is achievable. Whether or not that is tiny is debatable.

For me, on my daily commute of 11mi each way, it would be around a 15% drop in gasoline consumption if I charge at home, or a 30% drop if I also charge at work. Expect a smaller benefit in the winter due to diminished battery capacity in cold weather.

milnhir · 12-24-2009, 06:24 PM

Well thanks for the nice response fellows, the main reson for this question is you pay about 2or 3 dolars per gallon at the moment i am not shure but we (in europa) pay about 6 or 7 dollars thats is when its cheap.

For my prius ithink it would make nice difference btw the kilowatt is around 40 cents in euros that is so how would tis be practical whive oem hv battery?

We have 230 volt and 50 herz from the grid,and the prius 2006 will have 240 volts dc 80 persent at soc?

Some kind off current limmeting would have to be implied to make to make a good loader ? im a DIY guy so would like to have go at this.

I do not know how it would work for the Insight, but i notist a simularity when i start my car and it is cold it dos not run on ICE but electric and then it after half a mile it revs up the ICE and , runs on that.

I think we could have some thing usefull here