You are the electrician, you tell us how.

 

you have to match the voltage, it's DC right, so you'd need a rectifier, voltage regulator. You'd need a transformer to take the 120 volts up to what's needed. Probably a dedicated circuit. And you have build in some breaker or fuse safety links. And know where to plug in to get the voltage for charging to the battery array. I've been thinking about this for a day or two. Just bought a 2022 Rav4 Hybrid, dual motor.

 

I cannot recall anyone trying. However given the fact that the hybrid has only a 1.6kWh nickel-metal-hydride battery, even fully charged you might get like 3 miles on battery only. Its less than 10% of the planned prime battery.

That of course assumed you could also modify the controls to run on battery only. I imagine the system would still kick in for recharge pretty early before the battery is very low.

 

Agreed, the hybrid battery is much too small for more than a few miles. But if that was all you needed (and wanted to plug it in that often) there are high voltage chargers on the market specifically for hybrid batteries. I bought one for my '06 Honda Accord Hybrid when its battery started giving error codes after 12 years.
To get any range more than a long extension cord you'd need a substantial battery upgrade. From a practical standpoint that would likely mean wait for a Prime.

 

Most if not all modifications to Toyota's hybrid stem from the Prius. There are kits on the market to turn a regular Prius into a plug in Prius. Check out Priuschat.com for more information.

Did anybody try to modify a regular hybrid to a plug in?
I am an electrician and a new owner of 2019 rav4 LE hybrid

 

Very informative. Thank you guys

 

So why did I buy a hybrid? I really liked it has no lag when starts, quality of riding seemed much nicer too. Range I get is 480 miles on a ‘full’ tank.

 

This is meant to be a 15 year vehicle, due to the life of the battery, and it is somewhat cost prohibitive to own after that. So, you better get your 250k miles in in those 15 years (which is pretty doable).

 

I have read (somewhere) that the median life span of all private vehicles is about 15 years, meaning that half of any given model are off the road by 15 years due to accidents, mechanical failure, etc. People who carefully maintain a vehicle, including more than average preventative maintenance, can get 20 or more, including from Toyota hybrids. There are still gen one Priuses on the road, 18-19 years old. Many of those have had battery replacements which is cheaper than the sales tax on a new vehicle in most states.

I won't keep mine for that long for 2 reasons. I will eventually want newer tech and I probably won't live that long!

 

This lifespan seems to be reasonable. The amount of thrill I get charged with will stay forever 😃

 

Most people can't afford to upgrade every few years, whether they want to or not. I am simply too cheap. I still drive my 2008 Nissan. It also has a CD player that still works (with no Aux).

 

Did anybody try to modify a regular hybrid to a plug in?
I am an electrician and a new owner of 2019 rav4 LE hybrid

I think it is possible just purchase the parts required and install it. I am busy with investigation into this.

 

I was thinking about his as well, but I have no electrical experience. Since the Rav4 Hybrid has such a small battery (1.8kwh Lithium Ion in 2021?) I was wondering if a battery pack add-on would be practical. Somthing that could sit in the cargo area and attach to the main hybrid battery to extend its power capacity. Thoughts?

 

I did check parts from Prime vs the Hybrid. As I see it,it will be plug and play. Just purchase parts for prime and install it in your car.
You will need following parts.
You need 2 HV lithium battery's (that fits under two front seats)
Inverter
Cooling hoses for Inverter
Dc converter
HV computer
New harness for battery's and Computer.
New Quarter panel for charging port
Charger
See attached Drawings for the parts.
New Cluster

 

I did check parts from Prime vs the Hybrid. As I see it,it will be plug and play. Just purchase parts for prime and install it in your car.
You will need following parts.
You need 2 HV lithium battery's (that fits under two front seats)
Inverter
Cooling hoses for Inverter
Dc converter
HV computer
New harness for battery's and Computer.
New Quarter panel for charging port
Charger
See attached Drawings for the parts.
New Cluster

I don't see the software/firmware changes potentially needed to activate and coordinate.

 

Does this exercise void the any part of the warranty, the battery and electrical system in particular. Just curious.

 

I think it will.

 

If you install loose battery's you must get a way to cool them down, because the car is pulling so much amps at short time. That is why all ev cars have a cooling system for the HV battery. It will not be save. Another option is to Maybe connect external battery to the charger for the battery. So wile you are driving the external battery charges the main battery, I will have to investigate this option.

 

Another option is to Maybe connect external battery to the charger for the battery. So wile you are driving the external battery charges the main battery, I will have to investigate this option.

An external battery to the charger to charge the main traction battery is what I meant and have been failing to communicate clearly. Something self contained with onboard charger/battery management. Ideally a suitcase or rolling suitcase that can brought in to charge when there's no access to an outside electrical outlet. I've been talking to a few battery wholesale places and am trying to find the best batteries to use, balancing cost/weight/power density. Enjoying learning.

 

Given the high resale value of the RAV4 hybrid, I think the most cost-effective option would be to sell or trade in your vehicle and buy a RAV4 Prime.

 

Thank you for the good info. I agree.

 

Especially when you consider the tax credits make the two cars fairly close on price. I figured about $1500 total cost of ownership difference between our R4P SE and a comparably equipped R4H ($7,500 federal + $2,500 state). There are also people on this forum who claim to have been paid substantially more than their purchase price for a late model R4H - enough to make the R4P an easy choice. Regarding the lifecycle in 1988 I bought a Ranger 4x4 pickup and at the time figured with fuel injection, electronic ignition, computer modules, electronic hub engagement, etc. it would not be practical to maintain it beyond a dozen years or so. In fact exactly the opposite was true - the availability of auto forums like this made it feasible to maintain it myself way beyond what I expected and I only sold it earlier this year because used car prices got so out of whack.

 

This is an interesting thread. It's a few years later since comments were made. Has anything changed?

I see that my RAV4 hybrid has a 1.6 kWH battery, whereas the Prime has an 18.1 kWH battery.

 

My thought was to have quick swap batteries

Or use a trailer behind with a couple of ev packs
A built in cooling system
And maybe use Anderson plugs to connect to the car or truck

I see now in some areas they are hot swapping batteries in simi trucks for long haul

Yea ev is expensive at the least
But if you can get the batteries on the cheap
And maybe the chargers and fuel source
Like
Hydro
Solar
Wind
As cheap source
And dump the power to reclaimed
Used ev batteries for storage
As a power wall or power cell storage

Then convert to be able to charge
The car fast

Lots of loss in the conversion

So maybe direct charge the hot swap batteries
And change the battery every night for a full one like we do with power tools

To keep you out if the bar yea go for it
But as a cheap viable solution
Not so much
Way too much cash to invest

 

There's a couple cases of people adding a secondary traction battery to improve their mileage on their prius, so it would work the same on the rav4 if you run the traction battery in parallel.

But there are too many parts that change on the prime that makes it not cost-effective to do. The batteries are not the same voltage between the hybrid and prime. The underside of the prime is made different to house the bigger battery pack. The prime also has a different and more powerful rear transaxle unit, you'll have an easier time converting a sienna to a sienna prime than you would with a rav4 hybrid to a rav4 prime and the reason for that is the sienna shares a lot of parts with the rav4 prime stock. The sienna hybrid uses the same transmission, front and rear suspension parts, brakes and transaxles as the rav4 prime.

The hardest part would be getting the charging port installed. The easiest fix would be running 2 or 3 traction batteries in parallel, assuming the dc to dc converter can keep charging the added batteries along with the original.