Aug

Hybrid Fest VIDEO 3: Ryan Fulcher and Manzanita Micro’s plug-in 100 mpg Prius

Posted by admin Published in EV/Plug-in, MPG, Hybrids, Toyota

Coming at you from Hybrid Fest 2007, here’s an interview with Ryan Fulcher about his plug-in Prius. Interestingly, Ryan does not consider himself a hypermiler - he doesn’t like to nag about his driving habits, and just drives safely. While that may construct those of you in the forest green spectrum scoff, the fact that Ryan is a paler shade of green really only makes his Prius’ mpg figure increasingly impressive.

He uses a battery charger from Manzanita Micro to not only charge the batteries when plugged in at domestic, but to have the additional lead-acid batteries charge the stock battery, extending the range of the Prius’ electric

motor. A simple solution, but unfortunately a costly one. A conversion kit can cost $10-12,000, which would take years to return in fuel savings. However, the point is not to assemble a trade out of that kit. Admirably, it’s to show the major automakers that plug-in hybrids are easy to build and that there is a market for them. One would hope they already realize that, but as Ryan says, that “proof of concept” should be pretty good evidence in favor of production.

Original post by Shane Addie