The Kit That Turns Any Car Into A Hybrid

Snowdoggie wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: In reply to Snowdoggie: Those things have a very serious following. Replacement batteries are not a problem.

Cheapest price I could find for a remanufactured battery pack is about $2,000. Not exactly challenge priced. There has got to be a way to make a battery pack for one of these out of old Yugo batteries or a bunch of laptop batteries.

Try insightcentral.com and 99mpg.com for diy ideas. There are plug in "Grid chargers" to rescue old packs and extend range. The 99mpg site guy have developed a system giving you more control of the assist motor and gets north of 99mpg. He has now replaced the stock pack with lithium and gets significantly higher than 99mpg.

Toyman01 wrote: Does a Prius use a brushless motor? If so a wrecked one could provide the controller.

Extensive searching a few years ago led me to conclude that very few people have taken control of the Toyota hybrid inverter/controller. There are a few companies making big aftermarket plug in packs and hacking the computer to control it. I would love to get one, hack it, and control a Highlander rear diff/motor like this one:

I would rather wait for these to get cheap.

I paid $3800 for mine in 2010. Im sure i could find a cheaper one now.

In fact, id look for one with a 'bad' battery pack and buy it super cheap, and then fix the pack. Ive had my pack apart 2 or 3 times. Its not that complicated. More like tedious.

Imagine the motor you could put in these wheels.

Plus, there's a bed for batteries.

BRING ONTHE DONK!!!

Vigo wrote:

I would rather wait for these to get cheap.

I paid $3800 for mine in 2010. Im sure i could find a cheaper one now. In fact, id look for one with a 'bad' battery pack and buy it super cheap, and then fix the pack. Ive had my pack apart 2 or 3 times. Its not that complicated. More like tedious.

I'm really wishing a Honda Civic Hybrid was just a couple of inches wider. If so I would be DD'ing one with an A123 pouch cell pack and capable of wall charging.

MrJoshua wrote: I'm really wishing a Honda Civic Hybrid was just a couple of inches wider.

You have a sawzall, right

Would that not replace the rear break assembly? Regerative breaking?

If the gov't really wanted electric cars to take off they would get the people from Ideal to get into road building

I think its a great idea, and the potential is certainly there. I know of at least one other company that has done this before and achieved good performance numbers, but their price was too high, and the aesthetics of it were poor (it went outboard of the wheel).

40-50%. Yeah, achievable. The Accord shown in their picture is only rated at 22-24mpg combined. Thats only 8-10 mpg. Pretty achievable in town without much issue.

Would I buy one for a DD? Absolutely.

As a guy who has done DIY hybrids, played with several older hybrid cars, and engineers "real" hybrids that are actually in service, I can assure you guys there is absolutely no way this kit could exist for $3000 and meet the same expectations you have for an OEM type hybrid. Warranty? Useful and reliable at all temperatures? Serviceability? Diagnostics? Safety? Packaging? Corrosion resistant? Reliable supply chain? Distribution and support network? Etc. There are several companies that are trying to make wheel-based retrofit hybrids work, and so far nobody has come even close to making a real business case for consumers. I'd love for it to happen, but the big problem is that it's extremely hard to create a retrofit kit that can compete with OEMs due to economies of scale, labor/install costs, support network, etc.

Also, as noted above, without some massive battery, no way this will add 50% fuel economy for the typical vehicle and typical route. These guys are selling snake oil, don't believe it until you see it.

Bryce

Snowdoggie wrote: I would rather wait for these to get cheap. They look like a CRX and they are getting to be over 10 years old. Finding new batteries might be a challenge.

You know someone took the hybrid stuff out put a K20 in it and the thing still got crazy gas mileage

"LHT proudly presents the first real K20 Insight we named “K-Sight”

This project has been under wraps for the last 4 months but is now ready and on it’s way to the NOPI Nationals in Atlanta.

The object was to build this and as OEM as possible, Meaning it’s not a stripped out race car. The LHT way !

We have tried to cover every angle possible so make this a real streetcar. It has AC (Factory climate control), Power steering (Factory electric), ABS, S2000 cluster (100% operating), upgraded braking and suspension and a much stiffer chassis.

We stiffened the whole car by welding extra braces, as well as building a complete sub frame, which ties the whole front together, and course the whole thing is aluminum. The mounts are Honda OEM mounts from various Honda Vehicles so the car is very smooth with no teeth chattering. In fact you can’t feel it idle in the driver seat.

Now for numbers, with very little tuning the car is making over 200whp with a very quiet exhaust and tied with a JDM 6 speed transmission accelerates like a rocket. The car feels very tight and has great feel due the extra bracing and a custom alignment.

For the gas mileage folks, so far with very little tuning the car has averaged 48mpg with about 60% highway and the rest stop and go. This includes the 7 runs on the dyno. I’m confidant it will break 55+mpg once tuned. With the ability of the Hondata K-Pro we have had the car at 19-1 AF ratio with 40 degree of advance with no issues. "