I am planning to get a backup generator for my house soon, I would also like to be able to use it as a backup generator for my Prius, should the engine stop working. Could you give me an idea of how many watts I would need to be useful? For example: 1k watts - You can limp to a repair shop an avoid tow charges. 3k watts - You can drive around town, but not on the highway. 6k watts - You can drive on the highway, but your not speed racer! 10k watts - You can drive normally. Thanks for your help.
Your Prius battery pack is only 1.3kw and that can't be increased because the system can't handle it and will shut down to protect the system.... While you can use your Prius as a backup power supply for your house for a small number of things up to 1500 watts, you can NOT use your house generator as a back up power supply for your Prius. This is because the vehicle is designed to run on a combination of gas engine and electric motor. If the gas engine won't run you get warning lights and a car that won't go anywhere. And conversely, if the electric motor won't run, you don't have any way to to start the gas engine and you'll get warning lights and car won't go anywhere.
If your Prius engine stops working, you'll need to fix it. While there is an "EV mode" that lets you maybe move the car across a driveway, there really isn't a way to make the car operate anything close to normal by applying electricity from a separate generator or other source. Creative idea and all, but it just doesn't work like that.
There's no way to charge the hybrid Prius with an external power source. The plug-in versions yes, but that's not what you have. That's presuming you're talking about a 2010 Prius, per your avatar.
Technically speaking you could put the pack on a high voltage trickle charge to charge and balance pack and start your day with a full charge, but that added extra power is so small it'd be quickly dissipated in the first few miles.
1 mile downhill at 25 mph is the best you can do on ev alone. Better off buying a plugin hybrid or a spare car. My standard hybrid can go 100 miles without the engine or hv battery. It's part of my car insurance; eg roadside assistance and towing.
You mean 1.3 kWh, which is a measurement of the total energy the battery can store. The OP was asking about kW, power, which is how fast the energy can be served out to you. The gen 3 battery is around 202 volts nominal and has a 125 amp fuse on it, so it can give you 202 V ✕ 125 A or around 25 kW nominally. Can it give you that for very long? No, but it briefly does when you floor it. Technically, a 1.3 kWh battery would be completely drained in 187 seconds at that rate. The battery gives you bursts of power much shorter than that. It's true that the Prius transaxle needs the electronics and the motors to work, so you cannot drive on the gasoline engine alone. Without the motors working, the transmission is just a weird gearbox in permanent Neutral. On the other hand, the reverse is not true: the gasoline engine is not needed for MG2 to move the car. MG2 is mechanically linked to the transmission output and can move the car for as long as you can supply electrical power to it. Gen 3 MG2 is rated 60 kW, which is about 80 HP. If you found a way to lug a 60 kW generator along with you and somehow cajoled the car into using it, you could do some tolerable driving, though you would definitely notice the missing 54 HP compared to the car's normal power. MG2 isn't normally used at that power level for very long periods at a time, so you would want to watch the coolant temperatures. You would not do very much driving at the power levels suggested in the OP, 1, 3, 6, or 10 kW. Those are roughly push-mower to riding-mower levels of power, but a Prius weighs more than a riding mower.
Back in early 2000's Electrical Engineers in partnership with PriusChat built multi pack Prius wired in paralell that you could plug in to a wall outlet to charge. Several companies started up, more than one house was set on fire due to not enough safety features in the charging system and then Toyota liked the idea so much they used the same method for the plug-in Prius starting in 2012, which destroyed what little market share those startups had and they all shut down. However if you keep your eyes out for used Gen2, you may find one of these. Of course you'd have to make your own replacement parts.
What is a prime? Can I put it in the Prius and have it work? The Prius involved has rod knock, so I need to replace the engine. Just getting rid of the engine and having a car that would go around town as an EV would definitely be an acceptable option, perhaps even better than replacing the engine! Does anyone know where I can get a high quality rebuilt engine?
There was a company that added their "Hymotion" 5kwh batteries to gen2 Prius for $10k 15 years ago. Those conversions might have reached 48 miles ev range if the speed was very low, maybe 25-40 mph. Over a period of time that range would drop to somewhere around 10-15 miles. These range figures were in warm ambients with no heat or ac used. The government ran tests and logging on over 200 of these conversions. This is what that group of personal users got with a full charge. If an individual tried to engineer a similar setup on a gen3, the results are unlikely to be that good even though the battery parts cost would be less. When you stop and think about it, a brand new Prius Prime plugin still gets 44 miles range but is capable of freeway speeds unlike the gen2 conversions or a gen3 factory plugin on ev alone. Gen2 Conversion Study https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/phev/INL_EXT-11-23746_HymotionPriusWrapUp.pdf#:~:text=The%20converted%20Prius%20vehicles%2C%20referred%20to%20as,2004%20through%202009%20model%20year%20Toyota%20Prius.
Prime is a different version of the Prius that is set up from the factory to do exactly what you're describing- it has significant electric-only capability. It is not practical to convert a regular Prius into a Prime. It would be far cheaper to sell the old one and buy a Prime. Hybrid Pitstop in Buena Park, CA sells rebuilt Prius engines, varying degrees of completeness and warranty at different prices. Here's one example. They enjoy a good reputation and several Priuschatters have these engines. I've never done business with them myself though. Good luck!
anything can be done, but time, cost and expertise limit our abilities. prime is the plug in prius starting in 2016. a used one would be better for your application, thather than trying to upgrade yours. charging it from a generator might be possible, but idk.
Thank you very much for all the info! I found a used (150k mi) engine locally for $1200. I'm still kind of curious about putting some extra batteries in it so that it could have a useful range as an ev. It seems that the computer and cooling would be the main problem areas. Any thoughts?
If you are adept with electronics, you can buy an LG Battery module from a Bolt or Volt, there are others as well that will fit in spare tire compart. Secure it with hardware. Modify or make a boost converter to boost from that battery voltage to 240V with 10A fuse and current limit and diode. Then do similar or buy a capable wall charger and then you will be able to supplement the ICE at road speeds and Avg mpg will increase 5-10 mpg. Is it worth it? Very subjective controversial question. Fun? Maybe. I think its more of a hobby thing. If thats what inspires you, go for it. It might be a lot of fun. Probably not worth the effort. Although ive seen human endeavors that are probably lots riskier. A 25 lb walleye nearly made it to shore for a fellow the other day when the hook came out and caught fella in the eyelid horrible photo i saw. All ok now but maybe a grocery store fish would have been been more enjoyable. Cheers!
