Hi everyone, On the 15th of November the Portland Area HSD Meetup Group met for lunch and to hear Ron Jayasuriya from Shorepower Technologies who told us about the conversion of a Prius into a PHEV that his company did. Shorepower is also installing charging stations all over the Portland metro area. One of his customers, Wendy, came from Gresham with her PPrius (Plug-in Prius) with the Plug-In Supply conversion. On top of Wendy's PHEV, new group members Anne and Maureen brought their A123 Hymotion PPrius. The Shorepower conversion uses lead-acid motorcycle batteries and the Hymotion conversion uses nickel-metal-hydride batteries. We discussed the merits and differences of both systems and Ron was able to supply a good bit of technical background. After lunch we went out on 3rd Avenue and had both cars parked next to each other. We attracted a bit of a crowd with people stopping to look at the differences between the two Plug-in Prius. The biggest physical difference is that the Shorepower/Plug-In Supply conversion let's you keep the minispare tire, while the Hymotion adds cooling ducts in that space. Here are some pictures, Ron showing how the Plug-In Supply battery box lifts on gas shocks: Another view, showing the minispare: You can see the Hymotion cooling duct (black plastic) in the left rear corner: For some reason, the thumbnail pictures are stretched. Clicking a pic seems to show it properly. Look at our site to see the originals.
Bill...other than the size of the packs and cooling systems, what were some of the other big differences between using lead acid vs lion?
