For members of the Priusplus group, the first paragraph is news you haven't
heard.
The rest of this message is what I've just posted to the
Prius_Technical_Stuff and Gridable-Hybrids and EV World groups, giving some
background to our project and this group and points to key recent postings.
Thanks, all -- Felix

WE'vE RAISED SOME MONEY
Before describing today's tech news, I want to mention that we've recently
received been awarded a small grant to support our project to add
batteries and grid-charging to '04-05 Priuses, making them plug-in hybrids
(PHEVs). (The foundation, which generally does not fund technology
development projects, has asked not to be publicly identified.) Together
with individual contributions and one larger private donation, we now have
the resources to complete debugging and documenting the performance of our
preliminary prototype (using lead-acid batteries, giving under 10 miles of
EV-only range at low speeds) then move on to specify and order a
custom-built nickel-metal hydride pack for the first vehicle (with an
expected range around 20 miles).

We also now have very limited funds to actually take the car around and
show it at public and private events. We hope seeing a plug-in hybrid will
promote this way to move beyond today's popular hybrids, so that most
peoples' daily drives will be grid-powered, in the interest of energy
independence and reducing transportation's role in global warming.

We are still seeking additional support for the second vehicle, using
lithium-ion batteries (much lighter, perhaps 30+ mile range) -- spread the
word. We hope to be able to announce other favorable developments in the
coming weeks!

WHAT'S HAPPENED SO FAR
We finished building and installing our first battery pack (18 lead-acid
electric bike batteries) in late September and spent early October
attempting to get rid of error messages. In mid-October, we switched from
our first configuration (pack in parallel with existing hybrid batteries)
to one where our pack and battery management system replaced that of the
Prius, connecting directly with the Toyota Hybrid System. Since then we've
been plugging (and unplugging) away at system faults and error messages. We
haven't eliminated all the problems, but we're now close enough to drive
the car for extended periods without having to reset the system repeatedly.

TODAY'S TECHNICAL NEWS
After some late-night drives yesterday, Technical Lead Ron Gremban reports
our first performance finding. As we'd fervently hoped, the batteries'
contribute significantly to improved efficiency even at higher speeds: Ron
showed 83MPG for a 10-mile mostly-highway run. (Remember that this initial
battery pack weighs about 300 pounds -- appropriate for our first tests but
not for an acceptable vehicle, and we expect even better performance
ahead.) This validates our approach of emphasizing the fuel economy
benefits rather than the amount of miles driven in EV-only mode (limited in
the Prius to under 35mph and gentle acceleration).

You can read Ron's report at :
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/priusplus/message/224
Ron will be posting additional comments and pointers to our future
directions in the next few days. You can see we have quite a ways to go,
and are always interested in suggestions from people not in the group that
described below (sent to rgremban@... and/or me).
Within a few days, we'll also have a posting from Dave Goldstein that
summarizes a series of off-line discussions about our considerations in
choosing a NiMH battery, and an update of our spreadsheet showing battery
vendors/options.

For our recent progress we especially appreciate the inspiring engineering
and advanced troubleshooting of Greg Hanssen, Pete Nortman and Daniel
Sufrin of Energy Control Systems Engineering <http://www.energycs.com>, and
the dedication locally of Tom Driscoll. Thanks also to the others who've
been suggesting debugging strategies, and to that larger group of advocates
and fans helping us in many ways.

For background (and for definitions of the many acronyms in Ron's
messages), I recommend you browse the messages at
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/priusplus/messages
especially, recently, 202, 207 and 221, and previously, 167, 181, 188 and 191.

ABOUT THE PRIUS+ DISCUSSION GROUP
At the request of many of its members, we've been strict in keep the
"PRIUS+ Plug-In Hybrid Conversion Group" focused and low-traffic -- and
restricted mainly to people with technical backgrounds who want to become
actively involved in the group (it's now 67 members). Non-members can send
suggestions to priusplus-owner@yahoogroups.com; we consolidate these
comments and at times post them with our responses.

We're encouraging those who want to follow our progress to simply monitor
the group's messages on the web. (We recognize this isn't as convenient for
some as getting email messages, but Yahoo Groups has its limitations. By
the way, the files are accessible only to members, but we mirror the main
documents at http://www.priusplus.org.) Be assured also that when we have
important news, you'll hear about it on the groups we point to on the
discussion group's home page (see URL below). And we hope to start up a
general PHEV/CalCars/PRIUS+ "breaking news" email list as well.


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Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.priusplus.org
Moderator PRIUS+ PHEV Conversion Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/priusplus/
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