Lithium PHEV replacement pack????

Mike Dabrowski 2000 · 01-22-2008, 08:42 AM

I just got this link sent to me from a buddy in canada.
http://www.lionev.com/upgrade_to_Lithium.html
Insight pack is listed as $1,125, with no other info.

**uhtrinity** · 01-22-2008, 10:50 AM

There isn't much information other than it is Lion and requires a $750 charger. I can't see it being a drop in replacement as you wouldn't be able to charge it without plugging in. That would seriously cripple an Insight. Is there a chance it might be a booster pack? If so that would be great.

The other thing I noticed, they misspelled Insite

Mike Dabrowski 2000 · 01-22-2008, 12:09 PM

Someone should call them and see if this is real.

james · 01-22-2008, 12:54 PM

I might consider it, if some smart electronics designer would come up with a controller that'd let it work in the Insight (hint, hint

)

boogetyboogety · 01-22-2008, 01:37 PM

Darn it! I knew I should have bought the Insite instead of the Insight! Think how much money I would have saved...

clett · 01-22-2008, 02:30 PM

If it is real, it looks like they are using the BYD LiFePO4 cells, which are currently retailing for about $300 per kWh.

Mike Dabrowski 2000 · 01-22-2008, 08:42 PM

The same guy sent me this link.
http://www.paktrakr.com/index.html
The price sounds nice if it works. It even has a serial data dump.

james · 01-22-2008, 11:23 PM

Humm... Was just musing about the Lion pack while driving this afternoon. If you already had MIMA installed, would it be that hard to adapt to a purely manual control for the pack, if there's a way to detect when the pack is fully charged or discharged? You'd need to fool the system into thinking the pack was always half full, say, then command assist/charge manually.

Mike Dabrowski 2000 · 01-23-2008, 10:36 AM

Yes, but I think that we can fool the SOC system into using extra capacity and displaying the SOC of the whole pack with a simple mod to the current sensor. I will try it out on the IOS (Insight On a Stand)
http://www.99mpg.com/Projectcars/BlueBird1/
once I get some time.

james · 01-23-2008, 12:35 PM

"...once I get some time."

Yeah, if I had any to spare, I'd pack it up and send it to you

As it is, I'm about at the point where if we could just run 2007 again, I might have a chance of getting caught up.

But it would be so nice to be able to do regen all the way down that 8000 ft downhill...