Hymotion/A123 has announced that it is now taking orders to convert 2004-2008 Prius' to plug in hybrid technology. The conversion adds a battery pack where the spare tire sits, costs about $10k and has a three year warranty. The battery will charge off of house power in under 5 hours and will make the Prius able to achieve 100 mpg over a 30-40 mile range. Also of note is that the cars have met governement crash safety tests, so the whole battery exploding thing should be behind us. There's a great animation worth checking out on the site to see what the batts are made of.
While this may seem steep to many, remember that this is just the beginning and the price point on these upgrades is only going to come down once they start hitting the market place and more people want them. It's a great start and in my opinion, about time.
Live Sustainably
Dave
