Jalopnik
We can't help but be in the CalCars guys' corner on their quest to give the Toyota Prius hybrid full-electric capability. After all, as someone once said (Mark Twain? Henry Ford?) "tinkering is the best revenge over those who'd just as soon spit in your eye as say hello." (Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right). CalCars is a non-profit group of "entrepreneurs, engineers, environmentalists and consumers" who take on projects that promote its interest in national security, jobs and global warming. At an upcoming MAKE magazine event, CalCars engineers plan to hack a new Prius to make it plug-in capable, installing a battery pack and tweaking hardware and software so it can go all-electric. We won't tell if you don't. Oh, wait...
CalCars.org to modify Toyota Prius to "plug-in" hybrid at Maker Faire [MAKE]
Related:
Steve Lapp
s Photovoltaic Prius Project [internal]
Comments
But again, isn't this just displacing the energy use from the car to the power plant? Neat hack though.
Couple this with a low hp diesel engine and Toyota might be able to claim that $25 million X-Prize offer if they could build 10,000 of them and they all get 250 miles to the gallon.
Totally
... and then they're then going to put it through the whole series of crash tests followed by durability, hot weather, cold weather and drivability testing.
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