For 'hybrid hackers' selling plug-in kits for the Prius, high gas prices add up to a big opportunity.
by David Kushner, Business 2.0 Magazine
July 13 2006: 9:19 AM EDT


(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Rising gas prices and booming sales of the Toyota Prius mean a big opportunity for Pete Nortman. A year and a half ago, the Monrovia, Calif., engineer hacked his Prius by replacing the battery with a lithium-ion version and adding a system that plugs into an ordinary 110-volt socket.

After charging in the garage overnight, the souped-up Prius gets about 100 miles per gallon--roughly twice what a regular Prius gets at best. "This is just the beginning," Nortman says.

Now EDrive, the startup Nortman co-founded, and Hymotion, a competitor based outside Toronto, are set to turn such tinkering into cash. They're the first two companies to market PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) kits for Prius drivers.

The EDrive kit will debut by December with a price of $12,000, installation included. Hymotion's kit, also due later this year, will cost $12,500, a figure that co-founder Ricardo Bazzarella plans to drop to $6,500 by this time next year. He estimates profit margins of 20 to 25 percent and says the success of his business hinges on public awareness.

In that, the hybrid hackers get an assist from nonprofits like Palo Alto-based California Cars Initiative. The group holds public PHEV demos and predicts a market for as many as 100,000 plug-in vehicles (260,000 Priuses have been sold in the United States).

"The goal is to make carmakers build these cars," says the group's founder, Felix Kramer. Toyota's (Charts) response: "We admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the people making conversions," says spokeswoman Cindy Knight. "This is something we're seriously investigating ourselves."

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Related:

Pushing a finely tuned Maserati to its limits.

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From the July 1, 2006 issue

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/busin...ce=yahoo_quote

 

very nice to see the business opportunities. i think it's going to boom for them for maybe 2-3 yrs. by then the new toyota prius would be out, which carries a promising ~100mpg as well.

the question then would be whether these guys can continue to hack those systems for more

 

That system will be sooo outdated in a couple of years when the new Prius comes out.

Also, for that extra cost, you need to drive the car about 240,000 miles extra to start saving $$ on gas.

Did I do the math right?

 

Outside of the cost of the conversion you still have to pay for the electricity to charge the batteries. This really isn't something for nothing.

I wonder how the cost of electricity to gas breaks down in this car. Also, I wonder which is more efficent at power the car given the energy needed to make and deliver the electricity or the energy needed to refine, deliver, and burn the gas. You also need to consider the fact that you will be supporting nuclear or coal power by using more electricity compared to more gas. Still sounds promising none the less.

 

Man, so for most people then this will mean having a second loan to get these batteries..12k for some batteries did I get that right?

 

Toyota's current hybrid batteries operates b/w 20-80% charge capacity. Any other extremes will reduce the life of the batteries, hence why Toyota doesn't currenty offer plug-in hybrids.

And I'm thinking Toyota bought shares of Fuji Heavy primarily for their battery technology

 

Correct but by next year the price would be reduced by almost half...

 

Yeah but dang the Prius cost a bit as it is.. Hopefully the cost on the Prius and these batteries will one that is reasonable by that time.

 

That's true, but even at MSRP, the car is flying off the dealer lots.

I've never seen a Prius sit for longer than two days on a lot...

 

Special batteries for your Prius: $12K
Additional electric bills after installation: $6K/yr
Laughing my *** off at any suckers who do this: priceless.

 

realistically, anyone doing this is not to save on MPG, but to help the enviroment. Same as people still buying Rav4 EV's for 50k...