MIRA Introduces Plugless Plug-in Hybrid Conversion
April 28, 2008
MIRA has announced a retrofit hybrid conversion kit that provides removable battery packs that plug into a wall outlet for charging. According to the company, the kit can reduce fuel costs by 61% and can reduce tailpipe CO2 emissions by nearly 40 percent, while making a minimal impact on vehicle design. The vehicle’s battery packs also charge while the car is running on its gasoline- or diesel-powered engine.
The company created a proof-of-concept demonstration vehicle, known as the H4V, and was supported as a research project by the Energy Savings Trust’s Low Carbon Research and Development program, and funded by the UK’s Department of Transportation.
The rationale for the removable batteries is cost: it’s cheaper to get electricity from the power company than it is to run a combustion engine, but retrofitting a car with a plug-in kit that requires the entire vehicle to be plugged in is both expensive and impractical. By making the battery packs removable, the range of the car can be extended effectively, provided that the driver has access to electricity at his intermediate destination.
Each lithium-ion phosphate battery stores about 30 kW and is contained in a “cassette” that is about the size of a briefcase. The kit requires three batteries and tests have shown that it delivers better economy than a standard hybrid system does. In addition, the mods feature a regenerative braking system to capture inertia. This, in turn, charges the batteries while the car is in motion. According to the company, regeneration technologies have just become mature enough to provide enough of a cost advantage to make their addition compelling.
The system is not currently in production but MIRA intends to bring it to market soon. The overall cost of the kit is about £2,000, or about USD$4,000.
Photo Credit: MIRA
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