$3000 Plug-In Hybrid Retrofit Kit fits almost any vehicle

[Space Racer]

This device isn't in production yet. It still has a lot of testing ahead. But it looks like it will make it easy to convert any gas-powered vehicle into a plug-in hybrid. (It doesn't recharge its battery when it's on the road.)

It puts a motor at each rear wheel and a battery in the trunk.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/08/hybrid-conversion/

[classical]

I read this the other day, it sound very interesting but will it be practical. They said $3000.00 in parts so jack that price up by 150% to cover markup marketing and profit then add labor to install it. Let's just say $9,000.00 for an average vehicle it will take 8 to 10 years to pay back driving twenty miles a day 5 days a week under 40 MPH.

Will it work on a service truck pay back would be quicker but only for 40 miles a day. I am not raining on anyone parade just thinking out loud. Hey I would love 400 ft-lb's. of torque on my F-150 running around town and not using gas.

I wonder why they do not have an onboard charger.

[Space Racer]

If the price was $9000, no one would buy it. The inventor must have a lower price point in mind.

The motor is basically a rotor assembly that fits between the brake drum/rotor and the wheel. Installation should be pretty straight-forward.

$3000 is the total retail price of the parts used to build the prototype. Wholesale prices and mass production would keep the cost down. Production would not have to start from scratch. The patent could be licensed to an existing motor manufacturer.

I would expect installed price to be somewhere around $4000 to $5000 at first, and quite a bit lower after two or three years.

If you save a gallon of gas a day @ $4.00/gal, it would pay you back $1000/ year. (Similar calculation.)

They might not guarantee it on a commercial vehicle. Who knows?

On-board charging technology would jack up the cost, wouldn't it? They might be able to provide it as an option after more development.

[chaard]

So is it just turning a 2wd into a 4wd? Does the gas engine disengage under 40mph? So you might save $4gal/day. How much is the electric charge going to cost?

[Space Racer]

So is it just turning a 2wd into a 4wd? Does the gas engine disengage under 40mph? So you might save $4gal/day. How much is the electric charge going to cost?

It's not just for front wheel drive cars. It works on rear wheel drive cars, too.

It has no control over the gas engine.

It's a power assist. It's like driving a car downhill. It's like putting an electric motor on a bicycle.

The neat thing about it is you don't have to buy a whole hybrid car. You can just buy a kit. And while it's not quite as efficient as a purpose-built hybrid car, it's a lot more efficient than gas by itself, and a lot smarter than ethanol or total EV.

[pacnw]

so if it does not tie into the gas engine in any way, it cannot save you any money.

it must either run independent of the engine until 40 MPH stated cut off or disengage the drive shaft to keep from using the engine from powering one set of wheels and the electric from powering the other set.

not too sure of the commercial application-weight/size of vehicle.

[billygoat22]

maybe they can do regenerative braking as a plug-in add-on? Seems like a waste of time if that isn't available.

[Space Racer]

so if it does not tie into the gas engine in any way, it cannot save you any money.

it must either run independent of the engine until 40 MPH stated cut off or disengage the drive shaft to keep from using the engine from powering one set of wheels and the electric from powering the other set.

It's designed to run at the same time as the gas engine. It shares the work. There's no need to disengage it when the car is traveling less than 40mph.

[Space Racer]

maybe they can do regenerative braking as a plug-in add-on? Seems like a waste of time if that isn't available.

Regenerative braking (RB) is cheaper than grid electricity, but grid electricity is a lot cheaper than gasoline.

But consider this: Regenerative braking occurs when the car is traveling too fast for the task at hand. It's a way of recovering part of the energy that was spent on acceleration. Most RB occurs in stop-and-go traffic. Light-footed drivers will have little use for it.

If a car with RB manages to recover a substantial amount of energy from braking, it's only because a larger quantity of energy was wasted on acceleration in the first place. Accelerating slowly is more efficient than accelerating fast and relying on RB for a kickback.

[pacnw]

It's designed to run at the same time as the gas engine. It shares the work. There's no need to disengage it when the car is traveling less than 40mph.

I just do not see this as saving any substantial amount.

I am no expert, though.

[billygoat22]

on highway driving, regenerative wouldn't be much help, but regardless of how inefficient acceleration was, still the same amount of energy in a moving vehicle at a specific speed. and you would be recycling "used" energy, rather than consuming new when you started moving again.

[Space Racer]

on highway driving, regenerative wouldn't be much help, but regardless of how inefficient acceleration was, still the same amount of energy in a moving vehicle at a specific speed. and you would be recycling "used" energy, rather than consuming new when you started moving again.

Let's say you are driving a hybrid car with RB whose battery is low, so it only uses the gas engine. The engine gets an average of 30 mpg when you are light on the gas pedal, and 20 mpg when you are heavy on it. The advantage of having a heavy foot is that there is a good amount of wasted energy, and some of it is used to recharge the battery. With a light foot, there is little wasted energy.

Would you drive with a heavy foot or a light one?

[motoguy128]

IF it looks at hte primary IC engine throttle position, speed and RPM, it could have some potential. Although it seem like at minimum it also need soem regenerative braking funciton or at least a option to upgrade your existing alternator to provide some recharging when the IC engine load is below a certain threshold... such as when braking or coasting.

Overall, I struggle to see a payback. I might be insterested in a smaller, cheaper version just to add AWD to my wife's sedan.

So how do you install the thing? You'd have to repalce the whole hub assembly.


Any mention of the impact on adding 5+lb of unspring weight to yoru suspension? That could result in some major impact to wheel control and handling.

MFG's have tried these kinds of "soft hybrids" before. They suually add abotu $5k to the rpice and only increase city mileage by a moderate amount. Not enough to justify it. The big selling point is usually increased acceleration. Honda sold one for 2 or 3 years on the Acord than cancelled it. Saturn had it on one of their vehicles I think too.