Hymotion L5 and The 100mpg Toyota Prius

July 14, 2008 · 7 comments

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Without question, the Toyota Prius has become an iconic symbol in the worlds unrelenting quest for fuel efficient vehicles. For those willing to pay a premium for an arguably overpriced vehicle, A123Systems of Watertown, MA has announced a “plug-in” adapter kit that will effectively double the Toyota Prius’ fuel efficiency to over 100mpg.

Starting this fall, A123Systems has announced that it will begin selling it’s Hymotion L5 upgrade package. The package includes upgraded battery power cells as well as a receptacle connection allowing you to “plug-in” your Prius into a standard electrical outlet.

The Hymotion L5 Plug-in Conversion Module is a rechargeable Nanophosphate™ lithium ion battery that uses regular 120V grid power to recharge, providing the user with ~5kWh of rechargeable energy storage at full capacity.

Through the increased use of electric drive, the Hymotion Plug-in Conversion Module enables the Prius to achieve in excess of up to 100 mpg for 30-40 miles* over a range of up to 40 miles, dependent upon driving conditions. Once the L5 module is depleted, the vehicle reverts to the normal drive cycle of a stock Toyota Prius.

Priced at just under $10,000, the Hymotion L5 Kit is not cheap. Combined with the average retail price of a new or used Prius, you are looking at a cost in excess of $36,000($20,000 more than a 36mpg Toyota Corolla or other similarly priced vehicles). At $4.00 a gallon, the monetary “break-even” point on a Hymotion L5 equipped Prius will occur after it has been driven 280,000 miles (assuming you never need to make any repairs).
If you’ve got the money and want to make a statement, buy yourself a Hymotion L5 Prius. If you’re simply looking to keep a little more money in your wallet, consider a less expensive alternative to hybrid technology.

{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

Sean July 14, 2008 at 12:05 pm

Hopefully some things like this can reach economies of scale and start to come down in price. Although it might take a lot to match a Corolla or Civic in total cost efficiency.

Miranda July 15, 2008 at 1:56 am

Did you see that the Prius is going to come with solar panels in 2009?

At any rate, we’re hoping that by the time our current (fairly fuel-efficient) vehicle dies, the Prius will have come down in price, or that there will be a wider variety of cars using renewable technology on the market.

Andy @ bloginyourface.com July 15, 2008 at 2:37 am

Yeah, I heard that too! To bad the solar panels are only going to run the air conditioner and that is it.

hank July 15, 2008 at 9:17 pm

Fuel efficiency is going to need to take another 5 or 6 years to simmer until they can come up with a viable alternative. Solar panels most certainly aren’t going to do much good, but maybe the market they’re going for is the “uninformed to science/rich”

:) I can’t fit in a small car yet anyway till these kids figure out how to carry less stuff in the car!

Ben July 15, 2008 at 9:49 pm

I know that the solar panels are only for the AC unit, but I wonder what improvement that will make overall in gas mileage.

Can anyone comment on the difference between running their Prius with and without the AC unit on? I can’t imagine the difference is more than a couple of miles per gallon.

I have a feeling that it will be at least a $1000 option.

Justin August 19, 2008 at 12:58 am

I think hypermiling a car is a reasonable solution. I can get 140% of the EPA rating on my 2001 Accord pretty easily. Have you ever checked out cleanmpg.com? They advocate safe hypermiling practices.

I talk about these issues on my website too: http://www.otecology.blogspot.com

Garry G, Editor November 13, 2008 at 1:37 pm

Mixed feelings on this type of news.

I would recommend listening to the Shai Agassi interview from Web 2.0 on an alternative business model for electric vehicle infrastructure. Short story- we would buy the car, but not the battery. Instead pay access fee per mile like we do cell phones.

Yes, good thing for DIY style upgrades is good for early adopters.. But for me – now it is time to push new ideas that go beyond the Prius (which I think is no longer the gold standard; nothing with a combustion engine should be the icon of the future, IMHO) I think we need to focus on changing the global auto industry and push to kill the combustion engine saying no hybrids. I am a big fan of A123… and steady advances in batteries. but I also wish the tone would change so people understand that the future of electric cars is likely to be tightly integrated around batteries, fuel cells and capacitors. The quicker we get there the better… Batteries have bad chemistry and despite being heavily criticized by energy bloggers- hydrogen fuel cells are on a perfect development path. I’m eager to get energy storage systems smaller and at lower cost…

Converting one’s own car is great– but we have to really think big – and globally if we expect changes to have a real impact.

Thanks for the story!! It’s great to see the industry evolving… and very excited about startups like A123…

Garry G
Editor
The Energy Roadmap.com
http://www.theenergyroadmap.com

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