The Toyota Prius has been a hit especially in the USA where the people love it for it’s excellent fuel economy and the tax breaks that comes with using a hybrid vehicle.
A stock Toyota Prius without any modifications to it’s hybrid powerplant system gets about 45 miles per gallon of petrol. Converting this to our litres per 100km thinking, that’s about nearly 200km for 10 litres of fuel. My Satria with it’s 45 litre fuel tank could probably go 900km! That’s crazy fuel mileage.
Ron Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and USD$3000 (RM11,250) modifying his Toyota Prius to get even more astonishing fuel mileage.
So what kind of fuel mileage did he achieve? 80 miles per gallon. A 45 litre fuel tank can go 1450km. Crazy right?
How did he achieve this? He has a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries in his boot to store extra power and he has modified the charging system to be able to fully charge the car from a regular wall power outlet in his house.
The extra batteries allow the Prius to run for 20 miles with a 50-50 mix of gas and electricity. After the batteries run out, the Toyota Prius falls back to regular hybrid mode and has a fuel efficiency of around 45 mpg. As long as Gremban doesn’t drive too far in a day, he says, he gets 80 mpg.
Gremban says:
The value of plug-in hybrids is they can dramatically reduce gasoline usage for the first few miles every day. The average for people’s usage of a car is somewhere around 30 to 40 miles per day. During that kind of driving, the plug-in hybrid can make a dramatic difference.
Some experimental hybrid modifications have even achieved 250 miles per gallon. That’s roughly 100km for 1 litre of fuel. A 45 litre fuel tank can go 4500km.
With petrol prices in Malaysia expected to go higher than RM2 per litre, my wallet is envious of those hybrid owners.
Source: Yahoo
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Diesels could do better than the Prius.
And no, your wallet wouldn't be envious because hybrid cars are #*&*&(@ expensive.
Get a diesel instead.
No way Malaysia will ever see the likes of this!
Proton can barely get thier self-designed engine running hassle free. They are at least another 100 years behind for hybrid engines.
Nope, the great Tun Mahathir will continue to "advice" Proton not to embrace hybrids – after all, less petrol consumed will only mean a lower income for Petronas.
The prius is a commodity in the US, there a 6month to 1 year waiting period for it and yes, the cost is quite high (relatively for americans). Ofcourse for we malaysians, we're so used to be screwed by proton for high cost cars that we may find it okay …around 120-150K perhaps? hehehehe
I am wondering when it will hit our asian shores ….aparently the production is insufficient to cater for the US market itself! But then it's been more then a year now that it hit the market, do you say that Toyota still cant cope in expansion of their manufacturing facility? I think not,i think they want to control the market and price!
>charge the car from a regular wall power outlet in his house.
and where this electricity comes from?? more than 70% of the US Electricity prroduction is from Fossil fuel. The standart Prius is great but this modification is worthless…
There is a Civic Hybrid also which was introduced last year or two years before. Sadly response wasn't that good towards it, which is why I think Toyota did not bring it in. Doesn't help that they do not have any stock to sell either.
I've seen the Prius move around. They are sufficient for daily urban travel. And that's about it. The shape reminds me of the latest Toyota MPV models, such as the Wish, Stream and Estima.
You get better mileage with the Hybrid compared to the Diesel, gallon to gallon.
Apparently the cost of charging the car up is much much cheaper than the fuel it will use based on the mileage.
When the hell is it coming to Malaysia??!!!
IF THIS CAR COME IN MALAYSIA I WILL DO ANYTHING TO HAVE IT
AND IT'S BETTER IN MALAYSIA MARKET… SO THEY NOT …. RACE TO INCREASE FEUL PRICE… YOU KNOW WHO……..
ALSO, THEY ALSO ……. FASTER TO THIS TECHNOLOGIES YOU KNOW WHO…..
btw….. i heard this car already in malaysia …… no way……? yes way….. BUT sadly that car will never ride on malaysia road…… why… it for display only….. at PLANETRIUM NEGARA . i did't go there yet ….. but i heard it was there….
I guess TNB will be more than happy to hear any news on hybrid vehicals .. so that they can raise their rates too!!!
Hybrid? Not my interest. I am more interest to use FUEL CELL cars. Only buy hydrogen or make it at home. 100% clean for environment and not depend on Fossil oil price……..Wait for another 5 years…..I will buy one! Mercedes A-class or C-class with Fuel Cell technology.
Imagine this technology is around for quite some time now… malaysia, talking about eco friendly, tried to sell us with the proton eco some time ago, but what the heck, something better like this and we still couldnt import this??? well, i guess there's no profit for the government people to bring in this model then… that or the jpj is classifying this as a garden tool then…
heard about this car. received it's information from forwarded mail. Looking forward to see this car on Malaysia's road :p
ARRGGGHHHH.. DAMN ALL OF YOU WHO STILL VOTING THE CURRENT GOV. THAT'S WHY WE ARE STILL WHAT WE ARE TODAY!!! DAMN!!!! I DO NOT KNOW WHY, THERE IS SO MANY INTELIGENT & HIGHLY EDUCATED MALAYSIAN & YET STILL CANNOT CHANGE THE SITUATION IN THIS COUNTRY… ARGGGHH..
I will want this…. the current petrol price is killing me. I am in sales line, have to travel a lot, cannot afford anymore increase in price already.
Some US company has start "hybrid conversion" business for normal car. Car manufacturer like toyota is defending their own business by saying conversion is not as good as getting "from the factory" hybrid car.
I can see the hybird competition will not come with car manufacturer, but from those hybrid-conversion company. So far, I think Prius is still inefficient version 1 hybrid. With so much car building experience, Toyota should do better than this, e.g.
– make new brake system, transfer the energy to dynamo when breaking. With careful design, you don't need ABS system(because transfer energy to dynamo will not lock your wheel), and breaking time and distant can be shortened.
– Truly computerise eletronic valve. So the car don't burn too much fuel to maintain the speed.
– use supercharger/turbo charger to generate electricity than boosting power. For value add purpose, make it switchable to air-compression mode when you have money to burn.
this is actually the second generation prius. the first generation prius was released in 1997 in japan. its not a version 1 hybrid. toyota could of course build a better car than this, but they didnt, to make sure the price didnt reach ridiculous levels.
of the three suggestions, i doubt that toyota havent thought of them. but the technology available to them was just not sufficient to make them a reality
the Honda Civic Hybrid, available in malaysia since may 2004, had a regenerative braking system, similar in concept to moo_t's 1st suggestion. the system, through some clever calibration by the Honda guys, converts the energy dissipated when the throttle is released (or when the brakes are applied) into electricity, charging the battery. kudos to the geniuses who came up with the system!
the car bombed in malaysia tho.. high price, limited exposure, and the lack of tax breaks contributed into this. one can blame the sheer lack of apathy among malaysians towards environmental matters, but that would be wrong.
in some countries, namely US and UK, tax reduction is given to buyers of hybrid cars, therefore making it less costly to own a 'green' vehicle. nonetheless, in the uk road tax for vehicles are calculated by evaluating the car's toxic emissions, where a cleaner car would fall under a lower bracket=lower tax. in malaysia where road tax is linked only to a car's engine displacement, tax reductions seems impossible
When you all buy the handphone or mobile phone, did you all check the battery life time? and Cost? or maintain? Sure you will check it, rights?
If the battery is not long lasting and expensive to be replaced, any body wanna to buy Used one? Sure the 2nd value drop like hell.
I was told by the dealer that the Prius hybrid battery can only last for 3 years if you lucky 4 years. After that Hei you know what to do lah! Buy new battery? Too expensive, Sell off? Who want it!
Honestly the hybrid car can only be economic to use if the battery or maintain are lower then petrol price. Find out more than you will regret to use it in Malaysia. You all may not agreed the petrol price still cheap in Malaysia compare to other countries like Japan or Europe. (I am not comparing the Salary or income, just the petrol price) I still prefer to use Combustion engine before Fuel Cell cars launch.
thats totally missing the point of having these hybrid cars. its not about having a car thats cheap to run, its about having a car that is clean and doesnt contaminate the air.
Bull shit! (Special to hfrshah)
If you want to safe the world, everyone should buy the FUEL CELL car only. Becasue this car is 100% green car. Only produced H20 and heat.
Hybrid car still had emission not 100% clean my friend.
Hybrid car can only helps to lower fuel consumption (low cost) not to solve Green house effect completely. Pls correct me if I am wrong!
whoa whoa dude chill..
its true hybrid cars arent totally clean, and it does pollute the air. but at a much lower rate, agree? take the new RX400h as an example, it offers performance of a V8 engined car, but with fuel consumption of a V6. and the exhaust emission is comparable to a 4 cylinder engine. its not totally green, yes thats a fact. but it wasnt designed to be that way.
fuel cell vehicles, now thats a different case. its 100% clean. sadly, no car manufacturer has enough balls to put it into production yet. one well known firm even mentioned that the design will only be ready for mass production in around 10 years from now.
i totally agree that hybrids arent perfect, but its a step in the right direction, right?
sorry for the misunderstanding
Dog the Wan: Bro, what hfrshah said is correct la… Fuel cell cars are truly environmentally friendly but right now, the cost of setting up hydrogen gas stations is too costly. Also, the technology for fuel cell cars is still not very efficient, i.e. you don't get very good mileage for a full tank of H2 gas. Producing hydrogen at home is just not feasible. The most commonly used "amateur" way of producing hydrogen is electrophoresis of water.
If you've never done this before try it; carefully break open 2 old AA batteries and remove the carbon rods. Connect wires to each of the rods. Place rods in a tube filled with water. Turn over the tubes into a container with more water. If you did it right, the tubes would be upside down and UPRIGHT in the container, and still be filled with water. Connect one wire to +ve terminal of a 9 volt battery and the other to the -ve terminal. Leave it for awhile. Later, you will see gas has collected in each of the tubes. The tube with less gas is hydrogen! :))
dog the wan…….
want you say is tru.. but now ….IT's HYBRID TIME….feul cell is good but mutanttomato say is tru…. if hydrogen is expensive than petrol will you buy it?
So at the end, you guys are more concern about COST rights?
Therefore my explanation is correct! Hybrid cars is not economic as you all thought because it has a bettery need to be replaced and higher maintenance cost than combustion engine. (Pls read the comment from me in 19th Aug 12:37pm above again)
I just want to make you guys understand, COST is more important then GREEN world at the moment. Because everybody wants CHEAP solution rather than saving the earth first. Pls correct me if I am wrong!
I don't agreed with this comment below:
hfrshah said,
August 19, 2005 @ 3:12 pm
thats totally missing the point of having these hybrid cars. its not about having a car thats cheap to run, its about having a car that is clean and doesnt contaminate the air.
Next, Hydrogen cost issue:
Gas Hydrogen can be produced and reproduced by Human rights?
Fossil oil cannot be reproduced by Human and will be out soon. rights?
Therefore, please ask yourself how come the Gas Hydrogen cost will be higher the Fuel cost? I means the price can be controlled by Human like foods. Hydrogen cost will be much cheaper for long run or even now. The problem of FUEL CELL vehicle is only vehicle cost (still very high), safety (for me is not an issue only for some people), politic & enconomic (Islamic country who produced oil and gas only) and infrastructure investment issues.
The USA government already approve FUEL CELL to be used on public and Honda FUEL CELL car was the first car used at the USA now. Mercedes FUEL CELL vehicles (about 100 units A-class) were already been testing around the world now.
Dog The Wan: Ok bro, one of Newton's Law of thermodynamics and Energy states that Energy cannot be created or destroyed. So, to produce hydrogen for the fuel cells, you need to expand some energy. Right now, it is fossil fuels. So thats one of the reasons why hydrogen is still expensive to produce.
I totally agree with you that cost is the more important factor than the completely saving the environment. But but but… If you could combine both… Then how? I think this is what hfrshah was trying to say. E.g. right now you produce 100 cubic meters of greenhouses a day by driving your standard 1.6. By changing your car you would get:
1. 50 cubic meters using a hybrid car-getting cheaper and already available.
2. 0 cubic meters using electric car-still expensive and lots of problems.
3. 0 cubic meters using fuel cell-still expensive, the fuel is expensive and
still problematic.
I dont know about you la bro, but I would choose option 1. RIGHT NOW la, RIGHT NOW, I can still lessen environmental damage but not have to sell my kidney to pay for my car! :) Of course I would definitely want option 3, but until and unless it is ecnomomically and environmentally feasible, it wont be possible.
>>>E.g. right now you produce 100 cubic meters of greenhouses a day by driving your standard 1.6. By changing your car you would get:
what the heck?!?!
ok ok… i was supposed to write "greenhouse GASES" but I made a mistake…. Don't know why the hell the second post came out like that… hmmmm
true true.. thats the reason for the hybrid's existance.
one more thing, a lot of celebrities are buying hybrids. Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Joel, David Duchovny and Bill Maher own Toyota Priuses. would they be concerned about cost?
The Honda FCX is the world's first and only fuel cell vehicle to be certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB), and is the only fuel cell vehicle in regular daily operation with multiple customers in the U.S.. to date, two units have been released to the public in New York, and another two in Las Vegas, but as lease vehicles and for a period of two years only. mass production of fuel cell vehicles for the common public cannot be a reality even in the near future. in around 7-10 years perhaps it might happen.
Ooohh.oohh ooi!
What's the matter! What is going here? Want to fight ar!
hfrshah said: Cost is not important at first, then Cost become an issue due to Hydrogen expensive to produce….baaaa lahlah……DON'T UNDERSTAND what is the point???
Mutant Tomato said: Newton laws? You are correct but Don't Energy can be get it from many free source, like SUN (solar), Wind, even Wave of Sea….Hydro….etc. So Gas hydrogen can be produced from these energy.
DOG THE WAN…I support you! I can understand your points but not the other???? Not sure what are they trying to say. YAM MO KAU …..CHO!
only a small amount of hydrogen exist in pure H2 form. most of them exist in hydrocarcons=fossil fuels. eg. methane, CH4. to extract hyrogen in H2 form a lot of energy is needed.
there are a few ways, The Kvaerner Black process, Water electrolysis as mentioned before, Partial oxidation of heavy hydrocarbons, and Reforming of light hydrocarbons. they all involve using a huge amount of power. to commit that amount of energy is expensive
Thank you so much for your responses, good or bad is Okay! is Fun to discuss.
I would like to ask you all a simple maths:
Assuming Combustion engine car cost RM10000. Petrol consumption: RM10000 for 10 years. Maintenance cost: RM10000 for 10 years. On the other hand, let say Hybrid car cost RM20000. Petrol consumption: RM6000 for 10 years. Battery cost plus maintenance cost RM 6000 every 2.5 years, so total RM24000.
1) Total for combustion engine car cost: RM30000 for 10 years.
2) Hybrid car cost: RM50000 for 10 years.
Now which one will you choose! 1 or 2. I will choose 2. This is the maths I am talking about. Did you see my point?
yup, totally
if you all think of this cost YOU WILL ALWAYS LIVE IN THE PAST…..
c'mon… firstly… the battery will come more money….but if more an more car on the road…. do you think there are only 1 manufacture produce that battery? sure not…….take 1 example: your handphone….. in the past who use it…. in this blog site… who use handphone that time? hah?…. who…. who… size of hand phone as same size as your children bag or your brifcase.. what about the battery that time… cost 2 MONTH your salary that time… people buy oso..but now…. programing handphone more that 100 that time people buy oso… remenber the brick size phone? hah! you all laugh
but now every 1 had 1 handphone in their body…….
last time the battery from nickel-cadium.. then Nimh… then Li-oN then… what next generation battery will come?
technologies will always go forward….. even your ink pen in the futere will not a ink pen anymore, may be pen will laser printer built-in……
dog the wan …
now the issue is maintenance….. may be in 10 years the price is 1/2 than you think…. and sorry to say this.. YOU LIVE IN PAST……
To bro Hokkien lang,
Eventhough I still don't understand what were you talking about, but I agreed YOU WIN!
I had nothing to comments since you are talking about 30 years later not now. ….you are a FUTURE man!…..I guess FUEL CELL car will be cheaper at that time too. YEAH!
Fight?! Me?! no ler… I'm a lover not a fighter! ;)
Dog the Wan: Bro I totally agree with your calculations and all that. But I'm saying and what I think hfrshah is trying to say is AT PRESENT (This is the important phrase!), it is too expensive to have a fuel cell car. Thats all. Its not that we don't want them/don't care about the environment/care more about money/etc, its just that it is just not practical to have a fuel cell car. But who knows in the future? Take SD memory cards as an example. When they first came out, a 128MB card cost something like RM250. Now, for the same price, you can get a 1 GIGABYTE Sd card! So until and unless they find some other cheaper and efficient way to produce hydrogen, it just won't work. Get it? And another thing; I am all for fuel cell car man! I totally support them!! :)
See Fu: Bro, you are right about getting "Free" energy form those sources. Now let me ask you something. How come you don't see a house TOTALLY powered by solar panels? Because the panels are not yet efficient enough to power up a whole house! Look at the number of solar panels needed to power up just ONE water heater! Wave power, wind power, geothermal power, etc are all excellent, clean sources of power but they are not practical enough RIGHT NOW to be a main source of power. Producing small amounts of hydrogen form these power sources is possible, but not large amounts. Once again, I stress on "RIGHT NOW." In the future? Who knows? Maybe there will be an even better source of energy! Get it? :)
Just stating my opinion ya? No fights ya! :)
Ah Ha….like that ar! Mutant tomota Bro.
It sound much better, JOU DiTT KONG mah! (cantonese!)
Okay agreed! CHAR Ditt KAU…..CHOU! Let's go Bangsar YAM CHA, I pay!
You know what, thru discussion everybody will understand more! Chou!