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

MrsJrotax101

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

MTSU-plug-in-hybrid-retrofit-kit.jpg

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