The 100 mpg Prius

Suppose you bought your Prius a few years ago, after running the numbers and projecting that if gasoline did in fact ever cost more than $4 a gallon, a Prius was a good fit for your commute. How smart do you feel now, you clever dog? Okay, Prognosticator, suppose it was possible to do most of your driving for the equivalent of $1 a gallon? Well, if you upgrade your Prius, it is. Even more exciting, you can even drive mostly for free, if you decide to install a solar photovoltaic (PV) system and drive on solar energy.

First things first: how do you get your Prius converted into a plug-in hybrid? I met with Paul Guzyk and Carol Lipof of 3Prong Power to find out what they are up to. Carol takes me to the work bay.


"Most people don't really want to know about the workings inside their car," Paul tells me. "But, here's where we've put 20 lead acid batteries into the wheel well. It adds 300 pounds but not much of a change to the car's handling. We install some stiffer springs and that takes care of the weight.

"You still have the same trunk space. And the whole battery rack is on hydraulics so you can easily access the spare tire if you need to.

"Want to go for a drive?"

Um, yes.

Out on the road, Paul turns to me. "We're going to go into 'Stealth' mode."

"This is my favorite part," says Carol.

Paul touches the Prius' in-dash screen and accesses the new mode. "The Prius is a closed architecture system, but all the subsystems communicate via Bluetooth. So we can 'spoof' the computer and introduce a new operating mode. We've left all the original Prius systems in place. We don't take anything out, we just add to it."

That and some legislation is why the Toyota warranty is not voided by the mods that 3Prong installs.

"So this sort of DOS looking screen shows that we are running entirely on batteries. Our lead-acids are used to keep the Prius' NiMH batteries topped off, and the gasoline engine doesn't start. We can go up to 52 miles per hour and about 10 miles in all electric mode. We can sit in traffic, running the air conditioning, the brakes, the power steering, all without gas. The Prius is just bulletproof. It has a great reputation. We just leverage off that, and you get a fully crash-tested, modern car with all the highway safety features right now, instead of waiting for a Toyota or Chevy concept car."

Ten miles is really about as far as most people drive when doing their around-town errands. I imagine parents who might be nervous about strapping a child safety seat into a neighborhood EV would be quite happy driving their children around in an all-electric Prius. The gasoline back-up is still there, of course, for those longer trips. How easy is it to charge?

"We install a plug through the rear bumper. You just plug it in to a normal wall socket," Carol explains.

"This isn't 'the' answer," says Carol. "There are many solutions, rather than a single magic bullet. What this does is gives us more choices. There are lots of sources to generate electricity and power an electric car, rather than being reliant on one source, petroleum, that causes politcal strife. Instead of being at the mercy of others, we get more options."

One of those options is solar power. "This Prius is owned by a customer who already has solar panels on his house. He's generating so much extra energy... and he wants to use it, since PG&E doesn't actually pay you for generating more than you use. So he'll be driving his first 10 miles each day essentially for free," says Paul.

I got a two-fer! On-site is a hydrogen fuel cell! We peeked inside it. Six large tanks deliver hydrogen through a platinum-laced proton-exchange-membrane, generating (wait for it...!) electricity!

Uh..., don't we get electricity a lot easier from the grid? How much cost and effort is it going to be to build the infrastructure for a hydrogen economy?

"Fuel cells are cool," Pauls tells me. "But they are expensive. How do you generate, distribute and store the hydrogen? It's cool, but not very cost effective.

"The existing infrastructure of the electric grid has so much over-capacity at night, that it could support charging 100 million plug-in cars. Balanced power load is important to power companies. It's hard on the equipment to power it down and power it back up again each night and day. They'd much rather just leave it running. Plug-in hybrids are the solution for the next five to ten years. The energy infrastructure is in place now."

Sounds good to me. I'm a much bigger fan of electrons than protons, for energy and power. Protons are heavy. We aren't very good at moving them. CERN just started operating a giant machine built solely for the task of transporting hydrogen nuclei in a 17-mile circle at a cost of billions. Well, ok, the LHC will also detect the Higgs boson and could also create a world-eating mini-black hole, but the point is that electrons are far easier to generate and store. You can do it at home, with a solar-powered battery charger.

3Prong Power is currently taking orders to make your Prius into a plug-in. The procedure is fairly priced at under $7000. For comparison, a non-crash-rated NEV costs between $3000 and $10,000. 3Prong Power shares a showroom with Berkeley's Green Motors, at 1500 San Pablo Avenue. If you drive a Prius, or can buy one as it comes off a rental fleet, I strongly suggest you consider getting this upgrade.

Here's KRON4's newsclip of the show

The Sparrow: perfect for a teen driver

I stumble over unserved markets all the time. For example, a lady stopped me while I was driving the Sparrow, and we spoke of its appropriate use as a vehicle for teen drivers. What do parents want?

Limited independence for their teen driver.

The Sparrow is perfect: having one seat eliminates the joyride factor, the horse-power limiting software eliminates burn-outs while allowing freeway speeds, and the limited range means you know your teen is within a half-hour radius (and will probably come home to charge the car).

Some car company should totally make a "training" car, that was safe but of restricted utility (perhaps with a 3 gallon gas tank and no room for making out).

Filling up on $20

Gas prices. Who knew they would go up?

Oh, that's right: Practically EVERYONE. D'oh!

I spent about $2000 on fuel last year in the 18mpg van. This year, in the smaller Geo Metro, we're doing more driving, using less fuel, having more fun, and probably spending about $2000. I'm pretty pleased about being able to do more while holding the expense constant.

Research conducted by Wayne Hochwarter, a professor of management in FSU’s College of Business, documents that Americans’ work attitudes have been affected as the cost to fill a tank of gas has nearly doubled over the past few years.

Hochwarter was interested in whether employees felt alone in their sacrifices or if their company had to tighten its belt as well.

"Certainly, only a handful of employees noted that their company changed plans or had to go without because of the price of gas — even companies that rely heavily on fuel for their operations," he said.

Those personally affected by gas prices who did not see the company sacrificing were less committed to getting things done while at work. Compared to those who felt that their company was doing without, those who felt alone in their sacrifice:

• Were 15 percent less committed to the company.
• Had job performance levels that were 12 percent lower.
• Were 20 percent less willing to stay late or work extra if needed.
• Were 25 percent less likely to give "maximum effort."

It appears that misery does indeed love company. When employees have to go without, they get very upset when they see the CEO pulling into the parking lot in a new Jaguar.

"The price of gas has contributed to the perceptions of many that they are simply never going to get ahead," Hochwarter said.

People, please don't feel alone as the vicious cycle of affluenzic life tightens its noose. We're all in this boat. We can re-learn how to shorten supply chains, build local economies, rely on each other more, to embrace and accept and plan for the coming age. We don't have to be surprised by the increasing cost of decreasing resources. We've spent down the principle that Mother Earth built up over a thousand million years. Now, let's work together, rebuild that principle, and learn again to live off the interest this abundant planet can offer us.

I've lost 16,000 pounds!!

The Geo and the Sparrow make nice with each other.

"Hi! I like you. You're small."

"You're pretty small yourself. What the heck are you?"

"I'm an electric car. We're not all dead, you know, even though the movie suggests we are. I'm helping to solve global warming. What do you do?"

"I get about 200 passenger miles per gallon when I'm transporting 4 people."

"Wow! That's better than me! My numbers work out to be roughly 30 passenger miles per gallon. But I get much of my energy from renewable sources such as hydroelectric. So I'll be driveable well into the post-carbon age."

"Me too, me too! DuPont and BP are coming out with a biofuel that runs in gasoline engines! Even if it's $5 per gallon, since I get 50 miles per gallon, I'll still be more cost effective than you!

Allright boys, that's enough, it sounds like you're about to start bickering.

We drove out to Vacaville, where we traded the van one-for-one for this little Geo Metro. The final service the van did for me was to carry that few hundred pounds of carpet I scavanged. Thank you, Quest, you served my family long and well.

The "newsed" Metro has an intermittent clutch problem. We knew about it going in to the deal. I'm simply so thrilled to have reduced my CO2 emissions by about 8 tons per year, that replacing the clutch is a small price to pay.

The cool comparison thing is found at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/