Mileage Range On Battery Power

[billygarrett]

I have had an RX300, then an RX350, then the current RX400h.

OK, the fuel economy on the 400h does not blow my socks off when looking at mpg figures of 28mpg (winter) to 32 mpg (summer). However, my wallet does notice the difference compared to the 350 (which was a lovely car too). I get around 100 extra miles to a tank in the hybrid. With the way fuel prices are going, I would lie awake in bed at night of I still had the 300/350.

The driving conditions and style of driving do make a difference to the 400h's economy. Examples

1. On battery only - drove around 10 miles at between 30-40mph, flat road (no gradients), no other traffic, no stop/start due to lights and still had some battery power left

2. On battery only - traffic jam on motorway, crawl a few, stop, and repeat. Probably 1 mile.

I live in West Yorkshire - it is hilly. The hybrid system works for me as half the time I am going down hill. The second motor effectively doubles the charging capacity of the system of course. It is not just a traction unit for when conditions dictate to use it. Having hybrid power also helps heave the car up hills in tandem with the petrol engine for some of the time. In a standard petrol RX, it would be costing me more going up hill, and not giving me any benefot back when going down hill. This is all driving at around town speeds.

On a motorway and doing alot of miles, there will not be so much in it between say an RX350 and RX400h, or a diesel 4x4, as the hybrid system will not be giving so much back. Every little helps though.

Overall, I think the benfit of a hybrid depends on several factors. These are: type of driving, length of journey, terrain, and style of driving. For me, I win out on the hybrid and it is a good all rounder as a business/family vehicle, comfortable, well specced as standard, good residuals, low RFL (£210 last year if I recall correctly), great on snow. It may not suit everyone, but it is nice to have a choice.

I live in North Yorkshire which is also hilly and I got pretty much the same results until I installed a Kenlowe engine pre-heater connected to mains through a time switch which is great in cold weather as well as the summer as it reduces consumption as the engine is already warm when started up in the morning.

But the biggest improvement with an average of 50 + mpg (up to 90+mpg on a couple of occasions over a distance of 10 miles when driving carefully at around 40 mph) came from the plug in kit via prius-plugin.co.uk

It came in a steel box for the Prius but I dismantled it and removed the plastic liner under the boot floor and installed the kit in there.

Works well!!!

Thats very interesting, no pricing details on the site which leads me to beleive it is an expensive alternative, so roughly how much for the conversion kit?

I can't remember exactly, but I paid approx £2000 + shipping to the UK for 4Kw, but I believe it has gone up now and there are more powerful kits available.

But it is a lt cheaper that A123 kit at $10,000!! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/automobiles/27PLUGIN.html?_r=1&ref=automobiles

You can always submit an enquiry for details from Enginer!

Good luck

Billy

So slightly more than a top of the range LPG conversion. I can see the Battery conversion being ideal for short haul delivery companies or local services like on call doctors/vets I guess. For longer haul stuff LPG is probably the better alternative.

It sure is good to see a few more options available now.

Agreed.

But I didn't know LPG could be fitted to the RX400H

Do you have any details?

BR

Billy

[Boxbrownie]

I have had an RX300, then an RX350, then the current RX400h.

OK, the fuel economy on the 400h does not blow my socks off when looking at mpg figures of 28mpg (winter) to 32 mpg (summer). However, my wallet does notice the difference compared to the 350 (which was a lovely car too). I get around 100 extra miles to a tank in the hybrid. With the way fuel prices are going, I would lie awake in bed at night of I still had the 300/350.

The driving conditions and style of driving do make a difference to the 400h's economy. Examples

1. On battery only - drove around 10 miles at between 30-40mph, flat road (no gradients), no other traffic, no stop/start due to lights and still had some battery power left

2. On battery only - traffic jam on motorway, crawl a few, stop, and repeat. Probably 1 mile.

I live in West Yorkshire - it is hilly. The hybrid system works for me as half the time I am going down hill. The second motor effectively doubles the charging capacity of the system of course. It is not just a traction unit for when conditions dictate to use it. Having hybrid power also helps heave the car up hills in tandem with the petrol engine for some of the time. In a standard petrol RX, it would be costing me more going up hill, and not giving me any benefot back when going down hill. This is all driving at around town speeds.

On a motorway and doing alot of miles, there will not be so much in it between say an RX350 and RX400h, or a diesel 4x4, as the hybrid system will not be giving so much back. Every little helps though.

Overall, I think the benfit of a hybrid depends on several factors. These are: type of driving, length of journey, terrain, and style of driving. For me, I win out on the hybrid and it is a good all rounder as a business/family vehicle, comfortable, well specced as standard, good residuals, low RFL (£210 last year if I recall correctly), great on snow. It may not suit everyone, but it is nice to have a choice.

I live in North Yorkshire which is also hilly and I got pretty much the same results until I installed a Kenlowe engine pre-heater connected to mains through a time switch which is great in cold weather as well as the summer as it reduces consumption as the engine is already warm when started up in the morning.

But the biggest improvement with an average of 50 + mpg (up to 90+mpg on a couple of occasions over a distance of 10 miles when driving carefully at around 40 mph) came from the plug in kit via prius-plugin.co.uk

It came in a steel box for the Prius but I dismantled it and removed the plastic liner under the boot floor and installed the kit in there.

Works well!!!

Thats very interesting, no pricing details on the site which leads me to beleive it is an expensive alternative, so roughly how much for the conversion kit?

I can't remember exactly, but I paid approx £2000 + shipping to the UK for 4Kw, but I believe it has gone up now and there are more powerful kits available.

But it is a lt cheaper that A123 kit at $10,000!! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/automobiles/27PLUGIN.html?_r=1&ref=automobiles

You can always submit an enquiry for details from Enginer!

Good luck

Billy

So slightly more than a top of the range LPG conversion. I can see the Battery conversion being ideal for short haul delivery companies or local services like on call doctors/vets I guess. For longer haul stuff LPG is probably the better alternative.

It sure is good to see a few more options available now.

Agreed.

But I didn't know LPG could be fitted to the RX400H

Do you have any details?

BR

Billy

Billy, No the 400H cannot be converted to LPG (AFAIK), it was just a comparison of cost.

Having said that I guess there is no engineering reason why not, as the LPG is just replacing the petrol component in the powertrain, but I wouldn't like to be the one who has to work out the electronics!

[billygarrett]

I have had an RX300, then an RX350, then the current RX400h.

OK, the fuel economy on the 400h does not blow my socks off when looking at mpg figures of 28mpg (winter) to 32 mpg (summer). However, my wallet does notice the difference compared to the 350 (which was a lovely car too). I get around 100 extra miles to a tank in the hybrid. With the way fuel prices are going, I would lie awake in bed at night of I still had the 300/350.

The driving conditions and style of driving do make a difference to the 400h's economy. Examples

1. On battery only - drove around 10 miles at between 30-40mph, flat road (no gradients), no other traffic, no stop/start due to lights and still had some battery power left

2. On battery only - traffic jam on motorway, crawl a few, stop, and repeat. Probably 1 mile.

I live in West Yorkshire - it is hilly. The hybrid system works for me as half the time I am going down hill. The second motor effectively doubles the charging capacity of the system of course. It is not just a traction unit for when conditions dictate to use it. Having hybrid power also helps heave the car up hills in tandem with the petrol engine for some of the time. In a standard petrol RX, it would be costing me more going up hill, and not giving me any benefot back when going down hill. This is all driving at around town speeds.

On a motorway and doing alot of miles, there will not be so much in it between say an RX350 and RX400h, or a diesel 4x4, as the hybrid system will not be giving so much back. Every little helps though.

Overall, I think the benfit of a hybrid depends on several factors. These are: type of driving, length of journey, terrain, and style of driving. For me, I win out on the hybrid and it is a good all rounder as a business/family vehicle, comfortable, well specced as standard, good residuals, low RFL (£210 last year if I recall correctly), great on snow. It may not suit everyone, but it is nice to have a choice.

I live in North Yorkshire which is also hilly and I got pretty much the same results until I installed a Kenlowe engine pre-heater connected to mains through a time switch which is great in cold weather as well as the summer as it reduces consumption as the engine is already warm when started up in the morning.

But the biggest improvement with an average of 50 + mpg (up to 90+mpg on a couple of occasions over a distance of 10 miles when driving carefully at around 40 mph) came from the plug in kit via prius-plugin.co.uk

It came in a steel box for the Prius but I dismantled it and removed the plastic liner under the boot floor and installed the kit in there.

Works well!!!

Thats very interesting, no pricing details on the site which leads me to beleive it is an expensive alternative, so roughly how much for the conversion kit?

I can't remember exactly, but I paid approx £2000 + shipping to the UK for 4Kw, but I believe it has gone up now and there are more powerful kits available.

But it is a lt cheaper that A123 kit at $10,000!! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/automobiles/27PLUGIN.html?_r=1&ref=automobiles

You can always submit an enquiry for details from Enginer!

Good luck

Billy

So slightly more than a top of the range LPG conversion. I can see the Battery conversion being ideal for short haul delivery companies or local services like on call doctors/vets I guess. For longer haul stuff LPG is probably the better alternative.

It sure is good to see a few more options available now.

Agreed.

But I didn't know LPG could be fitted to the RX400H

Do you have any details?

BR

Billy

Billy, No the 400H cannot be converted to LPG (AFAIK), it was just a comparison of cost.

Having said that I guess there is no engineering reason why not, as the LPG is just replacing the petrol component in the powertrain, but I wouldn't like to be the one who has to work out the electronics!

I thought so :(

Apparently it is very complicated as it has to start on petrol and switch to LPG every time it stops and restarts.!!!

Cheers

Billy

[Alienito]

I am currently looking for a cheap 400h to swap with my GTO mkII but I have driven one recently and what people don't realise is that the electric motors are always helping the engine via the CVT transmission. If only we could get a longer range. I can build Battery packs for cars but I wanted to know how far the 400h community have gotten in increasing the Battery range, are there kits? or videos? has anyone tried or found the connection points? does anyone know the max amps drawn from the batteries and max re-gen amperage? thanks

[Delphius1]

On 2/21/2011 at 4:18 PM, monkeyboy72 said:

I wish I hadn’t read this post its really depressed me, I had my heart set on a 400h mainly due to the hybrid system, I rather naively thought the battery power alone would last much longer than even 4 miles?, I do a lot of stop start driving especially getting to and from work and had visions of getting to work for the main part of the journey on battery alone!.

Am I right in thinking the rear electric motor only cuts in when 4 wheel drive is needed, therefore unless you need 4 wheel drive is sits there redundant?,

I’m starting to question what is the point of the hybrid system?, is it to get the car upto 30 mph before the petrol engine kicks in, if you run the battery out and your in a traffic queue I guess it is just using the petrol engine so in effect im driving a 3.3 litre v6 petrol vehicle, seems a shame they didn’t put a good economical diesel engine in there?.

If you are looking for longer distances on Battery power, then a plug-in hybrid may be more suitable for your needs. The plug-in hybrids tend to have a bigger capacity Battery pack to allow for more mileage on electricity only. They tend to have smaller engines and use the electricity to beef up performance. But plugging-in allows you to top up the Battery without relying on regen. So the batteries are full after a night on charge and ready to give you maximum range on electricity.

The normal hybrids like the RX tend to have smaller Battery packs and use them as an adjunct to the engine, scavenging energy to extend range through regenerative braking to use with the petrol engine for acceleration, or on electricity only at slow speeds.