Plug-in Prius - 100 MPG

Years ago I saw the film "Who Killed The Electric Car" about the EV-1 manufactured by General Motors to meet zero-emission standards in the state of California in the 90's.  As the story goes, when the auto manufacturers successfully lobbied to repeal the legislation mandating zero-emission vehicles, GM recalled all 500 of the prototype electric vehicles and had them all crushed (over strong protests from the lease-holders who loved them and didn't want to part with them) so that no one would see how great a car they really were.  Great acceleration, low operating costs and negligible maintenance - what's not to like!  Well they didn't use any gas, or oil, spark plugs, mufflers, oil filters, etc. - well I guess it's un-American not to consume all that stuff, you know.

When I later heard that a former head of the CIA was driving a Plug-in Prius, and that he felt that it was in the interest of national security to drive fuel-efficient or electric vehicles, I decided that that might be a good course of action.  At that time Plug-ins were not commercially available but buying a standard Prius was do-able.  In 2008 when gas prices first topped $3.00 per gallon, we had to wait 6 weeks to get our Prius and the demand for them was so great that we had to pay $500.00 above the sticker price to buy it.  That was a life-changing event for me. Now, watching the dashboard display while driving, the game changed from how quickly can I get to my destination? to - how high can I get my instantaneous MPG readout to be?

Then I learned that Hymotion-123 was manufacturing lithium ion battery plug-in conversion modules for the 2008 Prius.  I had to drive to Westboro, MA just west of Boston to have it installed by Scott at Westboro Toyota (the nearest of the 5 Toyota dealers authorized to install the batteries).  Then I became the proud owner of a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) capable of reaching 100 miles per gallon.  It was expensive ($9,500) but, hell, I was keeping the world safe for democracy.  It costs about 75¢ for a full charge (5 hours) and in spring and fall (with no AC or heating required) we can get over 100 MPG if we keep our trips in the 25 to 30 mile range and dirve the speed limit.  Otherwise we can easily average 70 MPG on hills and exceeding the battery capacity.