Hot Rod Heirs Customize Cars to get 300 MPG

London Telegraph ^ | 08/16/2005 | Catherine Ellsworth

[Keyes2000mt]

Owners of hybrid cars claim to be stealing a march on their makers by customising them to go even further for less fuel, in one case doing up to 300 miles per gallon.

Green-minded enthusiasts in California are turning the popular vehicles into "plug-in cars" that can be recharged using off-peak electricity from the mains.

The fuel-efficient hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and Ford Escape, have two computer-integrated engines: a petrol and an electric one.

Both drive the wheels with the battery-powered motor charged up during braking and coasting. Unlike electric cars, they never need to be plugged in and achieve 60-72mpg, against 26-42mpg for the average car and 14-24 in a 4x4 vehicle.

Now a small but growing number of "hackers" are souping up models by reprogramming their computer and packing them with extra batteries that provide more electrical kick and burn even less fuel.

Critics say that rather than revolutionising fuel efficiency or cutting pollution, hybrid cowboys rely on coal-fired power stations for energy.

Ron Gremban, an electrical engineer and environmentalist in San Francisco, has spent £1,660 customising his Toyota Prius, fitting it with 18 electric bicycle batteries that allow the car to store extra power.

He plugs it into a domestic socket at night using power from solar panels. The extra batteries let Mr Gremban drive for 20 miles with a 50-50 mix of petrol and electricity. After the car runs out of battery it switches to the standard hybrid mode. Mr Gremban said he typically gets 96mpg. "This is a very dramatic breakthrough, especially in the sense that it relies on existing technology so we don't have to wait for any developments such as with hydrogen technology."

He was inspired to alter his car, he said, after learning that Asian Prius models had a "stealth" button enabling them to be switched to electric-only mode until they hit a certain speed.

The electronic tweaks he performed "fool the hybrid system into thinking the battery is fully charged" so it uses battery power at all speeds, rather than just during deceleration.

The innovators have the respect of environmentalists and conservatives such as James Woolsey, the former CIA director, and George Shultz, former secretary of state. America's insatiable appetite for foreign oil is, they say, partly responsible for fuelling terrorism.

DaimlerChrysler AG is so far the only company that has committed itself to building its own plug-in hybrids.

Toyota, which initially frowned on the customised hybrids, now says it might learn from them. They were like the hot-rods of yesterday, said Cindy Knight, a company spokesman. "Maybe the hot-rodders of tomorrow are the people who want to get in there and see what they can do about increasing fuel economy."

A Californian outfit, Energy CS, in Monrovia, has converted two Priuses to get up to 276mpg on lithium ion batteries. It is opening a new division to convert hybrids to plug-ins for £6,500 next year.

Andy Frank, an engineering professor at the University of California, built a plug-in hybrid car from scratch in 1972 and has built seven others. One gets up to 250mpg.

[narby]

He plugs it into a domestic socket at night using power from solar panels.

Sounds like MSM logic.....

I never believe anything they say.

[flying Elvis]

"Unlike electric cars, they never need to be plugged in and achieve 60-72mpg

Most of what I have read by Freepers who own these cars claim that it is a struggle to get them to achieve even a semblance of parity in gas mileage with some of the more fuel efficient standard vehicles.

[Monti Cello]

convert hybrids to plug-ins for £6,500 next year.

For that price you could hire your own personal rickshaw drriver and get infinite mpg.

[BJungNan]

A buddy of mine is a service tech at Toyota. He says they do get better milage but that many customers do not calculate their milage correctly. This is caused by the "bladder" style gas tank that is not always filled with the same amount of gas (the bladder is like it sounds, not a metal tank with a set volume).

Someone will have more information on this than I do. Consider this repeating what I have heard and not what I know. I have heard the same reports as you have that they are not up to the milage ratings claimed.

[TheMightyQuinn]

America's insatiable appetite for foreign oil is partly responsible for fuelling terrorism.

That's all I needed to hear: terrorism is America's fault.

[Squantos]

Agree, but wouldn't a gas pump reading of say 10 gallons still be 10 gallons regardless of the type of container, bladder or not ?

Good info BTW....just asking....

[KC_for_Freedom]

Its not hard to understand. They put in more batteries, run more of the time on electricity and claim higher mileage. What would be the mileage of an all electric car? But other Freepers have calculated that the cost per mile is higher, the generation of the power is just shifted to solar or hydro, or fossil fuel depending on what serves the home user and his plug.

Since you can't get something for nothing, its not really 300 mpg. What is happening is people are driving efficient electrical powered cars. They don't go very fast, or carry lots of load, or pull boats or RVs but they have a place in terms of short distance commutes. (Oh, and the user pays for some of his commute in his power bill)

[grey_whiskers]

P.J. O'Rourke has performed a hilarious comparison of the efficiency of the human body--in particular, rickshaw pullers--with the efficiency of the gasoline-powered engine. He notes that the chemical energy available in one gallon of gasoline is equivalent to over 30,000 calories, an amount of food sufficient to feed a person for two weeks. As he puts it (from the Overpopulation chapter in his book All the Trouble in the World): A tricycle rickshaw is energy efficient like a Kuwaiti oil-well fire. The average food intake in Bangladesh is said by the Bangladeshi government to be 2,215 calories a day. One gallon of gasoline produces 125,000 BTUs, which is equivalent to 31,250 calories. In other words, a gallon of gasoline is a box of sugar doughnuts, a half-dozen twelve-ounce steaks, three six-packs of beer, a pizza, an apple pie, a twenty-piece bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, one hundred chocolate chip cookies, a birthday cake, a quart of bourbon, and a Big Mac and fries--which is more than a rickshaw puller gets in two weeks, if ever. And a gallon of unleaded regular costs [it did when he wrote this, at least] seventy-five cents before taxes. Try feeding anybody for two weeks on seventy-five cents, even in Dhaka.

Cheers!

[truth_seeker]

Any recent new technology announcements by GM or Ford or Chrysler(Detroit-American) lately?

None I've heard of.

Only capable of glacier speed, $3.00 gasoline has caught them flatfooted, again. Sad.

Half the vehicles sold in Europe today are diesels; capable of higher MPG. With turbos, the performance equals gasoline technology; sometimes better.

[Monti Cello]

Heh...my own mileage is about 12 miles to the bucket (Original Recipe) but the uphill performance is a little lacking!

[ApplegateRanch]

He plugs it into a domestic socket at night using power from solar panels.

Works great, until the street lights set.

[aft_lizard]

Its not about how much you put in, its how efficient the engine is. I used to be able to run 15 miles every other day on a 3000 calorie a day diet, so I was 10 times more efficient than a vehicle who drives the same distance on 1 gallon.

Maybe, I am right now not in a very good mathematical state. I think I need to factor in weight and other stuff too.

[FreedomCalls]

This is caused by the "bladder" style gas tank that is not always filled with the same amount of gas (the bladder is like it sounds, not a metal tank with a set volume).

What happens when you drive it for several hours over a really really bumpy road? ;)

[agitator]

If I wanted to drive a golf cart, I would have bought one.

[ApplegateRanch]

my own mileage is about 12 miles to the bucket (Original Recipe)

Sheesh! I never got better than 5 miles/milkshake.

[Rokurota]

One gallon of gasoline produces 125,000 BTUs, which is equivalent to 31,250 calories.

To be fair, it must be noted that a typical engine never gets all that energy into good use. Maybe only 7,000 calories of that ~30,000 actually gets put to use.

[cryptical]

But other Freepers have calculated that the cost per mile is higher, the generation of the power is just shifted to solar or hydro, or fossil fuel depending on what serves the home user and his plug.

I notice that nobody wants to talk about nuclear energy. The new pebble bed reactors look interesting, and W mentioned supporting nukes in a speech recently.

As for the Prius, I work with a guy who has one, he likes it a lot, but he does acknowledge that it's not settled technology and there are improvements on the way.

[Echo Talon]

300mpg and over $5000 worth of batteries.

[carumba]

LOL I missed that. Maybe its another engineering marvel. Photons from outer space powering the economy.