The Prius equipped with the power supply function
Posted on 07/26/2011 12:15:56 PM PDT by Red Badger
Toyota Motor Corp announced July 19, 2011, that it will equip the Prius with a function to provide electricity from its rechargeable battery to external equipment.
The function enables to power, for example, home electric appliances in the case of power outage. Toyota plans to release it as an option for the Prius in 2012. Its price has not been determined yet. The company intends to make the function available to other hybrid electric vehicles, too.
Toyota has already equipped the hybrid electric version of the Estima with a power supply function.
"(After the Tohoku Earthquake,) users in the afflicted areas told us that they charged their mobile phones by using the Estima during the long blackout and it helped them," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said.
Because of such responses from the users, Toyoda decided to equip other hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) with the function.
The maximum output of the power supply function is 1.5kW, and it can power almost all kinds of home appliances including TV, PC, rice cooker and dryer. When the SOC (state of charge) of the rechargeable battery is lowered due to power supply, the engine is automatically started to charge the battery. When the fuel tank is full, it is possible to continuously supply electricity at the maximum output for about two days.
The Prius equipped with the power supply function
$40,000 Generator ping!...........
Also known as “the cigarette lighter.”
Sorry I’m late, Boss. The car wouldn’t start because Junior was up playing Xbox till 2:30 in the morning...
That’s beautiful. Simple, obvious, yet unexploited to this point.
With enough features, and the price dropping, I could see myself in one of those things.
Gee, swell. Then when people run their hybrid battery dead by powering the Playstation and big screen, they’ll be totally screwed!
Plus an additional grand or two for a short piece of heavy wire and an inverter. There is also a probably little box that monitors charging voltage and current flow direction. The one on my Sprinter produces 1.2 kw right out of the boxes .
All are stock RV/marine stuff available off the shelf. Toyota probably picked up the idea of a Prius users forum
8 bucks and change on Amazon
The difference is, those adapters give you a 1A current draw. The rating of the Prius is 1.5kw, or roughly a 15A circuit. You could run your refrigerator and a sump pump on that.
Try that with the little cigarette lighter adaptors, and get back to me on how well it worked.
Rice cooker? The only cooking appliance mentioned?
You can't make this up.
This was already available as an aftermarket product available through the Priuschat forum, also there is an aftermarket DIY kit to do the same on older models.
The coolest application I’ve seen is someone set up their Prius up to keep their refrigerator operating during power outages in tornado alley. The second coolest application of this was the tailgating system at Giants stadium, guy had a blender and hotplate running off his Prius.
Well, it is Japanese, and TechON! is an Asian website.................
Good one....though I suggest, "Previously known as the cigarette lighter.
Kind of like how whole warehouses of Discwasher™ Record Cleaner became Discwasher™ CD Cleaner overnight.
I don’t have one that will plug in to the lighter. it connects directly to the battery. 5000 watt output. If the calculator is correct that is 41 amps of 120 volt electricity. I use this to power my fish store when the lights go out.
It connects to my car much like a set of jumper cables connects to a tow truck. (because that is what I used) connect the large plug and it’s powered. My cars remote start has voltage protection. it automatically starts the car when voltage in the batteries drops below a set point.
A full tank of gas will power my shop for 1 day.
Total amount spent on the car, the cables and the inverter.
5% of the cost of a new Prius. I also use it at job sites when needed. I also produce the power of 3 Prius with it.
It would be interesting to know the efficiency of the Prius in this mode vs. my Saturn (4-cyl) with a 1500w inverter, or just a 1500kva portable generator.
Of course. But no one is going to buy a Prius simply because they offer this option. They’ll save money and buy a small generator.
“The rating of the Prius is 1.5kw, or roughly a 15A circuit. You could run your refrigerator and a sump pump on that.”
This could be a seller for those folks that went without power in the tornado areas this year.
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