Aug

Hymotion preparing to expand PHEV retrofit business

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

Ricardo Bazzarella and his partner Akos Toth founded Hymotion only two years ago. In that instance they have developed a conversion kit for retrofitting Toyota Priuses and Ford Escapes to plug-in hybrid capability and were bought by A123 Systems final May. Since launching they have converted and delivered 35 vehicles, mostly to various governments and fleets for examining motives; another 30 are due to be delivered in the next few months.

The Hymotion plug-in battery pack uses lithium ion cells supplied by A123 and is designed to fit in the same package size as the OEM nickel metal hydride pack. The converted vehicles have

an electric-only range of about 35 miles. As some of the early production Priuses start to reach the end of the battery lifespan by the next few years, HyMotion hopes to tap into the replacement market with their plug-in kits. Hymotion is hoping that aftermarket, as well is increased interest from governments, utilities and other fleets, allows them to grow deliveries from a few dozen that year to as many as 2,000 in 2008.

[Source: Toronto Star]

Original post by Sam Abuelsamid