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Students gathered around the mint-green, and soon to be greener, Toyota Prius as Kim Adelman talked about the process that would make the car go much faster and further on its electric engine.
Adelman, CEO of Plug-In Conversions Corp. of San Diego, was at Metropolitan Community College's south campus Thursday morning overseeing the car's conversion from a regular hybrid to a plug-in hybrid electrical vehicle. Adelman said the cost of such a conversion generally would be $13,500.
Bill Moore of Papillion, editor of an Internet-based magazine EV World (www.evworld.com), provided his 2009 Prius for the lesson.
“We've been advocates of this technology for 10 years now,” Moore said of his magazine, which covers electric and hybrid technology.
Daniel Lawse, Metro's coordinator of sustainable practices, thanked Moore for thinking of the college as the place to go for the conversion demonstration.
“(He's) worked with us on a few other events,” Lawse said. “We want to train our students and faculty on some of these new technologies, so we just found it a great partnership.”
Lawse said Metro wants to bolster its curriculum and expose students to some of the new opportunities in an economy increasingly focused on sustainable outcomes.
“Because at the end of the day, we want our students to be up to speed on the latest technologies when they get out of our program,” he said.
The conversion involves removing the original Toyota battery pack and replacing it, installing a charger and a bumper plug to charge the car.
Adelman said the car “really doesn't know the difference.” Once the bumper plug is in, the car will plug in like a toaster, he said.
Although many people think of the Prius as an electric vehicle, Adelman said, it runs on gasoline.
“It has two sources of propulsion, but it doesn't have two sources of fuel,” he explained. “By adding the plug, now we have a true hybrid vehicle, with two sources of fuel. And this car will go 25 miles on electric, per charge.”
It takes about six kilowatt hours of electricity to charge the battery, Adelman said.
“We've also been able to modify the car so there's no limit on the EV (electric-vehicle)-only speed. The normal Prius, even if you enable the EV-only mode ... the engine will always come on at 35 miles an hour.”
The plug-in conversion overcomes that limitation, he said, so the car will go as fast as 72 mph all-electric.
Joe Jerdon, who teaches Electricity and Electronics I, said the lesson would give his students an edge. The technology is something auto mechanics will see more of in the future, he said.
Student Jordon Trujillo agreed.
More cars will have electric motors in the future, he said.
“This benefits us, because we'll be able to work on them.”
Contact the writer:
444-1074, john.keenan@owh.com
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