how much energy (volts) is needed to power a prius car?
January 17, 2011 by Mixture Car
Filed under how hybrid car works
so what ive been told, this is how a Pris(hybrid car) works.
when the car starts up, the gas powered motor starts up and starts charging a battery source. when the battery is fully charged, the gas motor shuts off and the car runs soly on the battery source.
when the car is running, how much energy is needed to make it run in the city at about 30-40 mph?
also, how does the weight of the car relate to how much energy is needed to make move?
any help would be greatly appreciated!! thank you in advance!!
volts =/= energy
I don’t fully understand your question! 2006 and newer Prius, HH (highlander Hybrids) and Lexus Rx400-h batteries have a nominal voltage of 288volts!
well i know a prius car and any other hybrid/electric car can kill you and 20 other people with enough to spare to drive that car another 30 miles. i believe the voltage ranges from 1,000 upwards of 30,000 volts, check my facts but i believe the leaf that just came out has upwards of 25,000 volts? might be wrong but i know anything orange can kill you and everyone around you (touching each other) and anyone who decides to touch you within a 2 minute span. weight of the car relates to how much energy is needed to move is relative to anything, pack 300 lbs on a cart and push it, now pack 1,000 and push it, see how much harder it is to push? now leave nothing on the cart and just push the cart! yay you just figured out how much weight affects how much energy is needed to move it!
As for the prius your looking at a very smart car and yes your basis of how it works is right, also under heavy loads (such as accelerating fast) the gas motor will kick in and help out the battery, now these new cars coming out will run straight off battery power and during optimum operating time the motor will kick on and off, unless just running the battery almost out and charging it from there (such as the prius does)
That is not even remotely how the Prius works.
The Prius has two motor/generators (MG) an internal combustion engine (ICE) and a battery. At all times when the Prius is not stopped, one or the other of the MGs is powering the Prius while the other MG is generating electricity. The ICE simultaneously powers the Prius during normal steady state driving and acceleration. During periods of very low power demand, the ICE can shut off so that it won’t be running in an inefficient RPM band.
This means that mostly the Prius is a gas car. However, because the engine is sized for efficiency for steady state driving rather than for acceleration like an old fashioned car, the MGs and battery are there to provide the extra power needed for acceleration along with the ability to shut the ICE off during periods of low power demand. This allows the ICE to almost always run at 34% to 39% efficiency rather than the 20% efficiency found in most cars.
In fact, when the Prius starts up, the sequence is:
1. The thermos pumps stored coolant into the intake manifold to pre-warm the unburnt gases left over from the last time the ICE ran fpr seven seconds (2004-2009 only). The Prius can be driven at this point.
2. The engine starts a warmup cycle to bring the catalytic converters up to operating temperature.
(When the Prius is put in “D”–which can happen anytime the Prius is in READY mode–the MGs start to move the Prius. When the power demand reaches a certain level, the ICE provides additional power.)
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As far as danger goes, you’d have to work really hard to get it to harm you. All the high voltage wires are marked with orange and are not easily accessible. They also have interlocks that cut the power off when disconnected (just don’t take bolt cutters to them). Toyota indicates that there are some internal components that can hold a charge up to five minutes after shut off, but actual measurements indicate that it’s a “could” and not a “does”. Once the Prius is not in READY mode all the high voltage power is cut off from everything but the battery. Basically, if you’re not trained to work with high voltage circuits, don’t mess with any orange wires and you’ll be fine. The battery stores 35 kilowatts of energy and the voltage varies between model years.