EV (electric vehicle) News and Discussion

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243 posts

Master Geek
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#1581015 27-Jun-2016 12:43

STUFF: Toyota New Zealand moves to electric vehicles - the used car way

Toyota NZ to start importing low-mileage plug-in Prius from Japan, modifying for NZ market, and selling under Signature Class.

wellygary

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Uber Geek
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#1581068 27-Jun-2016 13:37

The article fails to mention that the Gen 1 plug-in Prius (Gen 2 is launched later in 2016) has a battery very limited battery range of between

18-25km.....

RUKI

1405 posts

Uber Geek
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#1581148 27-Jun-2016 14:56

wellygary:

The article fails to mention that the Gen 1 plug-in Prius (Gen 2 is launched later in 2016) has a battery very limited battery range of between

18-25km.....

That Prius plug-in designed like that: use it in EV mode and when the first battery depleted - use the second battery in hybrid mode...

For short trips like I do - I would not even use the hybrid mode... So it is not an issue, but there is another big BUT:

If I got it right - those packs in Prius Plug-In are Li not NiMH and there are no source for second hand ones right now. Same as with Nissan Leafs - no source for second hand packs right now and no easy way to import cheap second hand from Japan.

richms

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#1581150 27-Jun-2016 14:57

wellygary:

The article fails to mention that the Gen 1 plug-in Prius (Gen 2 is launched later in 2016) has a battery very limited battery range of between

18-25km.....

Fine for most of the trips I do to maccas, the mailbox, bunnings/miter10 and the supermarket etc. Could probably go months and months without using the fuel powered engine if it will let you do that.

Richard rich.ms

old3eyes

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#1581192 27-Jun-2016 16:09

MikeAqua:

That's what our Paj (diesel) would average towing our caravan with two kayaks on the roof rack, 4 adult sized people and all our gear i.e. about a 1.5T payload plus drag from the kayaks.

Last trip from Nelson to Kerikeri was just under 13L/100km.

12L/100km for just the vehicle is pretty terrible mileage.

RUKI:

many 4WDs/SUVs/Turbo with their 12-15L/100km :-)

13L/100Km is about what my 2.3 liter Ford Mondeo does around town. Terrible mileage.

Regards,

Old3eyes

Linuxluver

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#1581309 27-Jun-2016 17:37

old3eyes:

13L/100Km is about what my 2.3 liter Ford Mondeo does around town. Terrible mileage.

Get an EV for around town, then.

I'm not sure if climate change will await our convenience. In fact...it won't. :-)

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afe66

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#1581447 27-Jun-2016 20:04

robcreid:

STUFF: Toyota New Zealand moves to electric vehicles - the used car way

Toyota NZ to start importing low-mileage plug-in Prius from Japan, modifying for NZ market, and selling under Signature Class.

Why Nissan doesnt do this with Leafs....

Buy the secind hand in uk or Jp and resell here with a limited warrantee. Create the demand and infrastructure gets built.

Later start selling the new ones...

Batman

Mad Scientist
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#1581637 28-Jun-2016 06:56

robcreid:
STUFF: Toyota New Zealand moves to electric vehicles - the used car way

Toyota NZ to start importing low-mileage plug-in Prius from Japan, modifying for NZ market, and selling under Signature Class.

What is this thing's CO2 emission vs the latest diesel vs the latest petrol? I thought there's bugger all difference

Linuxluver

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#1581654 28-Jun-2016 07:59

joker97:
robcreid:
STUFF: Toyota New Zealand moves to electric vehicles - the used car way

Toyota NZ to start importing low-mileage plug-in Prius from Japan, modifying for NZ market, and selling under Signature Class.

What is this thing's CO2 emission vs the latest diesel vs the latest petrol? I thought there's bugger all difference

If you use it for short trips around town, it can be zero emissions. The battery being smaller, it may charge faster. One would hope.

My Nissan Leaf barely cracks 50km most days.

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dwl

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Ultimate Geek
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#1581676 28-Jun-2016 08:20

Linuxluver:
joker97:
robcreid:
STUFF: Toyota New Zealand moves to electric vehicles - the used car way

Toyota NZ to start importing low-mileage plug-in Prius from Japan, modifying for NZ market, and selling under Signature Class.

What is this thing's CO2 emission vs the latest diesel vs the latest petrol? I thought there's bugger all difference

If you use it for short trips around town, it can be zero emissions. The battery being smaller, it may charge faster. One would hope.
My Nissan Leaf barely cracks 50km most days.

These first generation Prius plug-in seem rated for about 18 km as pure electric. May work well for some but quite limited.

wellygary

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#1581709 28-Jun-2016 09:22

Linuxluver: My Nissan Leaf barely cracks 50km most days.

And that is about the range I would have expected PHEVs to have picked, less than 30km is too short

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old3eyes

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#1581837 28-Jun-2016 12:34

Linuxluver:

old3eyes:

13L/100Km is about what my 2.3 liter Ford Mondeo does around town. Terrible mileage.

Get an EV for around town, then.

I'm not sure if climate change will await our convenience. In fact...it won't. :-)

It sits in the garage most of the time now since we lost our car park spaces at work due to Sky City closing the car park. When I finish work at the end of the year i'll sell it. may look at an EV then if I can justify the price. ..

Regards,

Old3eyes

RUKI

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#1582468 29-Jun-2016 10:08

old3eyes:

Linuxluver:

old3eyes:

13L/100Km is about what my 2.3 liter Ford Mondeo does around town. Terrible mileage.

Get an EV for around town, then. ....

It sits in the garage most of the time now since we lost our car park spaces at work due to Sky City closing the car park. When I finish work at the end of the year i'll sell it. may look at an EV then if I can justify the price. ..

Yesterday trip from work in Prius C - 3.8L/100km. That is not the top record. My friend had reported 2.8l/100 km in his Prius C yesterday in Auckland driving from Mt Eden to Howick.

As for EVs like Tesla and Leaf - I like the concept but for me any car / device / gadget which is too difficult or too expensive or not possible to fix myself - is a no go...

Tesla's batteries are non-serviceable by DIY. Tesla had software protected BMS and even willing to charge customers extra $10K for the software-enabled range extension... Not cool...

Imagine impossible: you've purchased Laptop and few years later you need to change the battery. You got the expensive replacement battery just to discover that when you swap it - Laptop does not accept it and you are required to visit official dealer, pay money for them to program the battery to be used in your laptop... Sounds crazy? Of course it does. If it were like that - people would refuse to buy laptops from the company who would do that. So laptop manufacturers had chosen another way around it - to prevent people from just changing 18650 cells inside - they password protected the so-called "Gas Gauge" (different Texas Instrument chips are commonly used) inside the laptop packs - so that when one cell dies - pack goes into PF (permanent fault) mode and you have to replace the whole pack.

I have TI tools which sees what happens inside the pack - but without being able to reprogram protected chips - have to buy the new battery pack. Still not cool. At least laptop would accept genuine replacement pack... Not with Leafs:

Guess what happened to one Leaf owner last week. They sourced the battery from wreck. They had just swapped it. The job is hard in itself - to move 240 kg pack from under the car, lift the car, etc. Leaf had not accepted the donor! Erasing DTC did not help of course. Because for that to work - reprogramming of the BMS (LBC - Lithium Battery Controller) with the Dealership Scanner (C3+) and Battery Programming Express Card is required.

The other "mechanical" option would be to remove the pack - open both old and donor - unseal the sticky sealant (hard job requires special chisel) and to swap the BMS (LBC).

That is hard, laboursome, unsafe and not cheap job to do, requires space and specialised tools...

Now the interesting part - cars involved are not some old 18 year old Toyota (just sold one - still was working fine).

Two Leafs 2013 and 2014 are involved! Thank you very much Nissan, you are making people choice for modern EV / PHEV / Hybrid cars a breeze....

At least for me - Toyota Hybrid - 20 minutes swap of the battery pack (~35 kg) when the need be and no reprogramming involved...

As I have Invented and build High Voltage Battery Testing Complex - rebuilding any Toyota hybrid battery is cheap for me and my mates in New Zealand ...