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Plug-In Conversions will display Prius PHEV at Electric Vehicle Association of San Diego meeting

17 September 2007

Plug-In Conversions Corporation will display a converted Prius PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and discuss the hybrid conversion business at the monthly meeting of the Electric Vehicle Association of San Diego at 7 p.m. Tuesday September 25, 2007.

Public Conversion of Prius to PHEV With Nilar NiMH Pack

Attendees at the upcoming TechMesh 2007 conference in Boston on September 17,2007 will be able to see a team of volunteers lead by CalCars, including representatives of Plug-In Conversions Corporation, perform the live conversion of a Prius into a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) using a 6.4 kWh NiMH battery pack from Nilar.

Founded in 2000 and with facilities located in Stockholm and Denver, Nilar developed a patented membrane technology for bi-polar batteries that it claims has enabled performance breakthroughs surpassing the standard NiMH chemistry in terms of power density, weight, and volume.

Based on years of experience in battery development and production, we set out to re-engineer the battery to remove common failure modes and construction limitations that plague existing high performance batteries. We focused on reducing the internal resistance, not only at the cell level, but in the complete battery pack. Our new construction approach provides lower internal resistance, uniform voltage and temperature conditions, and good heat transfer. This allows us to produce a very long cycle life battery with superior power and energy density. Newly developed automated production equipment provides consistent quality at a competitive cost.

—Neil Puester, Nilar Co-founder

Nilar stacks battery cells in series, with a conductive membrane between adjacent cells, acting as a cell wall and the electrical connection. The anode of one cell contacts one side of the membrane and the cathode of the adjacent cell contacts the other side. This results in negligible transportation resistance of current between the cells, and uniform voltage across the entire electrode.

The basic Nilar battery module is a 24V, 9Ah unit with nominal power density of 277 W/kg and 560 W/liter. According to CalCar’s Ron Gremban, the Nilar pack will provide about 20-25 miles EV range in a Prius and weigh around 104 kg (230 lb), with an expected cycle life of up to 2,000 cycles (6 years of daily use) and an expected cost of $6,000-$7,000.

In August, Nilar announced a partnership with Plug In Conversionss Corporation of Poway, California, which provides PHEV conversion services and support for DIY converters. Plug In Conversions Corporation is also an exclusive distributor of Nilar batteries for Electric Vehicle (EV) applications.

Plug-in Conversions Corporation (San Diego, CA) announces a partnership with NiMH battery manufacturer Nilar, Inc. (Centennial, CO) and CalCars to provide PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) conversions for existing 2004 or newer Prius owners. The first private party PHEV conversion in San Diego was completed at a public event in mid-August. Plug-In Conversions Corp will use three conversions to provide data for emissions and safety engineering, and plans to begin end-user and fleet installations in 2008 with pricing from $8,000 to $15,000 depending on the desired size of the system.
Plug-In Conversions installations do not modify the stock Prius battery or control systems, but simply add an additional battery pack. The converted vehicles are plugged into a wall outlet and charged up with enough electricity for 8 to 24 miles of driving depending on the size of the added system. This stored energy is used for all-electric driving below 34 mph, or to reduce the amount of gasoline used during normal driving until the next charge. Either way the mileage is much higher until the charge is used up and the car reverts to original Prius operation. Charging with utility generated electricity costs about 2 cents per mile and contributes significantly to reducing fossil fuel usage and vehicle emissions.