How to Convert a Hybrid into an Electric Vehicle

Reader Contribution by David Hrivnak
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Move over Chevy Volt, there is an alternative, now!  Imagine improving the gas mileage of the already best in class Toyota Prius an additional 25% on in-town trips. I discovered this is possible with the installation of the 4KW Enginer plug in upgrade. This boosts the battery capacity 4 fold from the base 1.3 KWH system in the base Prius.  For the last 18,000 miles we have averaged 43 mpg with our 2005 Prius in real world driving in the hills of NE Tennessee. With the Enginer kit, we have seen our mileage jump to 55 mpg over the last 2100 miles. A friend in the Knoxville EV club claims 120 MPG but admits he drives VERY slowly.  The system, installed on Feb 5th, has given us our five best tanks to date. Our results are shown below.

Having converted my truck to a plug-in hybrid and building an all-electric Jeep with Leslie Grossman of the Knoxville Electric Vehicle association, I expected to find challenges during the installation.  To my surprise, the kit came with all necessary pieces and parts and after about 12 hours of work the system was up and running.  If I understood how the high voltage relay worked on the Prius, I would have saved about 5 hours as I panicked when the car would not start.  A revised install manual includes these extra details.

The image below shows the kit with the charger, DC to DC converter, BMS, and batteries together in a neat box that fits under the existing trunk floor of the Prius.

  • Updated on Apr 29, 2022
  • Originally Published on Mar 22, 2012
Tagged with: 100 mpg, alternative fuel vehicles, David Hrivnak, Electric Vehicles, Enginer Kit, Reader Contributions
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