Cons: Occasionally, it causes a "code" to be issued by the ECU
I've been wanting to drive electrically since I was 16 and designed an all-electric car with my Engineer-Dad. It was to have 2 used street-car motors on each rear wheel and about a million PbA batteries.
Today, I'm driving a silver "recycled" Prius with a 5kWh Hymotion battery pack in the trunk and an EV button. I do most of my driving in electric mode and a 12-gallon tank of gas lasts me 3 months or 1200 Miles. Today, for example, I drove downtown, 36 miles, and used 0.9L or 0.25gal, yielding 142 MPG (US)/170 MPG(Imp)/1.6 L/100Km plus, of course, a "tank" of electrons worth about $0.44. Hey, that's some 3 cents per mile. I only have 177 miles on this current tank of gas, but have been averaging 240 MPG (US) so far.
I love getting into my Prius in the morning and seeing a full tank of electrons as I back out of my driveway. I can usually stay in EV mode most of the day before coming home and plugging in again over night. I don't have to stand around and wait for the tank to fill up or worry about it over flowing. It's clean and quiet and soooo affordable.
The drive is clean and quiet and powerful. I have considerably more electric power now than without the extra batteries.
The only negative is the inital purchase price. It's absurd at over $10,000 (US). My installation was used and, therefore, much more affordable. If I had to pay retail, I'd go with an Enginer Kit for about a third of the Hymotion price.
Who would be so stupid as to think that this is not the easiest way to drive?
