Plug-In Kit Turns Any Car Into a Hybrid for $3,000

[MrsJrotax101]

Plug-In Kit Turns Any Car Into a Hybrid for $3,000

Students from the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) have developed a plug-in hybrid retrofit kit. The eco-friendly kit is said to work with almost any car to turn it into a hybrid vehicle. The best part is, the cost of the technology would run around $3,000 if it’s commercialized.
MTSU Professor Charles Perry recently fitted the hub technology on a 1995 Honda station wagon, increasing the vehicle’s gas mileage by 50-100%.
“The whole point was to demonstrate the feasibility of adding the electrical motor to the rear wheel of the car without changing the brakes, bearings, suspension — anything mechanical,” he said.
The video below shows how the Plug-In Hybrid Retrofit Kit works:

Article from: http://mashable.com/2012/08/02/plug-in-hybrid-kit/

 

[webby]

So one rear wheel get the motor added?

 

[Monk]

Quite Interesting.......... I think(there for I am) he made one mention near the front. that it is both rear wheels.

 

[Nomar06]

Yeah, mentioned both wheels had it and were spinning at the same rate.


So the brake calipers are still somewhere in there? and for a RWD car it would still go over the rear wheels? Still pretty interesting.

Would you think the "man" would let this go commercial? Def would put a hurt on the electrical/hybrid vehicle sales, IMO. You could buy an older honda that already gets high MPG then add this and bam! MPGs of a Pruis for maybe $8k or so?

 

[Stoe]

I want one for my si


Clunck

 

[Dar-Dar]

So I'm assuming that they have this for both drum brakes and disc brakes. I also wonder if this can be applied to an existing hybrid. Maybe it will achieve over 60-70mpg with that addition.

 

[KennyGS]

Theoretically, this sounds great, but there are a lot of details missing that would need to be answered.

 

[Monk]

So I'm assuming that they have this for both drum brakes and disc brakes. I also wonder if this can be applied to an existing hybrid. Maybe it will achieve over 60-70mpg with that addition.

They said it would work with most cars(would have been nice to actually say disc&drum).

 

[Monk]

Theoretically, this sounds great, but there are a lot of details missing that would need to be answered.

As in how much does that battery pack wt. and where to put it if you don't have a stationwagon.

 

[Dar-Dar]

A LiFePO4 battery, to my knowledge, is very light weight. He did say that the prototype is large because it's being used to gather data and testing. But they will find a way to make it smaller. Probably small enough to make it fit inside a spare tire compartment.