EV insight with a Prius heart

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

I got a call from Detroit last night. Two of the x-prize team asked if they could come back in a month and camp out in their VW van in my yard.
They want stay here for how ever long it takes to get the synergy drive running at full power and mounted into the green insight.The nose is smashed, so we may fabricate a more aerodynamic front and back for the body and They may have connections to scrounge up some Lithium batteries.

Karma works in strange ways.
http://99mpg.com/Projectcars/evinsight/

[MN Driver]

Awesome! I've been interested in the syngery drive project on your site since I first read about it, I'll be interested to see how this moves along.

[RobertSmalls]

Subscribed.

HSD could be a relatively easy way to add EV mode to any vehicle, and there's an input shaft where you can mount a one-cylinder range extender if desired.

Which generation of Prius is the donor?

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

The US second gen which was just superseded by the 2010, so there are a lot of those drives in junkyards.
The EV battery pack will probably be a 208V lithium, as I have to stay equal to or below the stock Insight weight to register the car.
I have had a lot of people call and e-mail about the project including several that have already bought the parts, so if they show up,it will move the project up a few notches.
Need to get the grid chargers finalized, and should have the first prototype of the V-Buck booster system in another two weeks. Cell testers, weld removal fixture, grid charger code. It certainly does not feel like I am retired?

[satchel]

I think we all need to throw in and clone Mr. Dabrowski!!

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by Mike Dabrowski 2000

The Prius MG2 is a pretty nice drive motor if more power is desired, it has bearings, sealed case, cooling and a max rating of ~50KW.

The interesting thing about the honda and toyota motors is that the rotors all have about the same diameter.
The more powerful the motor, the longer the magnet rotor assembly, MG2 is about 8 inches deep, compared to the toyota MG1 and the IMA motors ~2.5 "

50kW sounds about right for a peppy Insight-bodied EV, and the Prius motor and inverter are available dirt cheap.

What I've been wondering about is how you would control it. Is there a MIMA (or MHSD, I suppose) for the second-gen Prius? Can you trick a Prius into accepting a lithium battery as easily as in an Insight? Or would you be using just the motor, and driving it with a non-Toyota inverter and controller?

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

The Prius inverter is driven by a PWM 3 phase signal, generated in the motor control computer,with position feedback by a special resolver.
Since there are two motors, a 50KW and a 10KW, each has its own inverter and feedback, as well as a 3 phase Air Conditioner power driver, and the HV to 12V dc/dc inverter.
The plan is to develop a direct driver to run the inverters and not to use the Prius motor driver box at all.

[Imwoody36]

I have all the prius parts and a 2000 insight that we gutted this week.
Yes, The prius will work with LiFep04 batteries.
Colaboration is welcome here at AutoBeYours in Southern Indiana.
My version will use the Prius inverter and associated electronics.

[Mr. Mik]

Originally Posted by Imwoody36

I have all the prius parts and a 2000 insight that we gutted this week.
Yes, The prius will work with LiFep04 batteries.
Colaboration is welcome here at AutoBeYours in Southern Indiana.
My version will use the Prius inverter and associated electronics.

Which Prius model do you use?

[Imwoody36]

We will use a gen 2, the donor vehicle is a 2008 prius.