Hack Your Hybrid—Activate EV Stealth Mode, Get Rid of the BEEP, and More!

mother of all hacks:

plug it in?

This is pretty cool!

What about hacks for the Civic Hybrid?

I have been waiting for the iPod controller for over 5 months now... sigh.

Adding the ability to plug the Prius in has already been done by a gentleman named Ron Gremban, as well as a group at MIT. They've been known to get up to 250 mpg.

"And speaking of backing up, they plan to offer an end to the awful interior beep the Prius makes when in reverse."

You don't need to buy anything to get rid of the reverse beep and/or the seat belt beep. There's a hidden programming mode that you access by holding down the odometer button while starting the car. It takes less than a minute, and you can use the same procedure to turn the beeps back on if you want. Details at the URL below, or just do a Google search for 'Prius reverse beep' and you'll find it.

http://priuschat.com/forums/kb.php?mode=article&k=7

How is plugging in the Prius a bonus? You're still drawing energy from fossil fuels.

Finding a way to "off grid" your Prius, AND achieve 250mpg without filling your trunk with batteries would be worth hearing about. If your goal is efficiency, buy an Insight.

The EV mode thing sounds way cool BTW.

"How is plugging in the Prius a bonus? You're still drawing energy from fossil fuels."

Not all electricity comes from fossil fuel (f.ex., here in Quebec it's 90%+ hydro and wind), and even if you live somewhere where it does, you can usually switch to a green utility.

The plug-in is mostly beneficial when you get your electricity from 'green' utilities (wind, solar, as the above comment mentions). Power transmission to houses is incredibly inefficient.

The power in your car's engine is many times the amount of power you need to run your house. It's only the annoyance of having to 'refill' and transport fuels that precludes people from just running their own power generation stations at home.

"How is plugging in the Prius a bonus? You're still drawing energy from fossil fuels"

Reference this quote from hybridcars.com:

Producing power from the grid (to charge the cars) will produce additional emissions.


Response: What the industry calls "well-to-wheel" emissions (including greenhouse gases) for grid-powered vehicles is far lower than gasoline, even for the national power grid (which is 50 percent coal). Cars charging off-peak will use power from plants that can't turn off at night. Many parts of the country get most of their power from cleaner sources like natural gas and hydropower. It's far easier to improve centralized power stations than millions of aging cars. Finally, plug-in hybrids recharged from rooftop photovoltaic systems will be zero emission.

Quote from EDrive Systems


Q2: Doesn't plugging in the car just trade oil pollution for coal pollution?


Californians are spoiled by one of the cleanest electrical grids in the U.S., but even where coal supplies much of the electrical power, plugging in vehicles is still a smart environmental solution. One thing that is often overlooked when electric power plant pollution is discussed, is the upstream pollution required to extract oil, transport it, refine it, distribute the gasoline then refuel a vehicle (vapor emissions). Comparing the national electrical grid to the average gallon of refined gasoline shows that the upstream pollution for gasoline production on average is much higher than that of the average electricity source.

Plug in vehicles charge at night when electricity is cheapest and most widely available on the grid. While electricity may be produced by renewable or non-CO2 producing sources, fossil fuels at present cannot.

Well hott-diggity! Guess I better start the mod on my Prius! :)

Actually, would be nice, for the extra range too. I've already disabled by "no nav control on motion" and back-up beep through software "hacks" (button sequences)

I have read being able to plug your Prius in from an envirnmental stand point is awesome. The batteries are even enviro-friendly. The only draw back is the price 10,000 - 12,000 for the EDrive conversion. Still a lot cheaper that a 1,000,000 hydrogen car and it should be commercially available this spring.

"Of course any modifications are at your own risk, and the risk of your warranty." --

Also perhaps the risk your modded Prius could pose to other drivers.

If you order from Coastal Tech, you could wait a long time with no response and no shipping from them - they are VERY slow (but seem honest).



BTW: The EV mod is VERY easy to do for about $15 in parts from any Radioshack. Takes about 2 hours if it's your first time doing the mod - basically you are just installing a switch to pull one pin in one of the engine control computers to ground, which enables EV mode. I could probably do it in about 30-45 min now.



There are other, far more interesting mods out now:



http://www.hybridinterfaces.ca/

I have ordered from Coastal Electronics. It has been 6 months and only part of my order has arrived. While I am happy with the things they did deliver (XM Radio & hitch), I have had a lot of trouble finding out the status of the rest of my order. They don't respond to emails or voicemail messages. I wouldn't get too excited about actually getting some of these things! Hey, Coastal, I want to be a fan, what's up?????

"The mother of all Prius hacks is coming soon. Can you guess?"

Automatic parallel parking?

Well, I walk to work, and the only fossil fuels I use are for cooking my organic porridge in the morning*. So, I'd be very happy if you didn't mod your gas guzzling Prius (60mpg - pah!) to remove the reverse beep, otherwise how am I supposed to know when to get out of the way?

*Actually, no, I've just switched to ecotricity.com, so even my porridge heating activities are green.

/Good grief, I'm such a smug 6@5t@rd! Please forgive me!

That's the odd thing about the Prius - the beeping is *internal* only. It doesn't sound anything external to the vehicle.

I guess it's to let the driver know - you're in reverse, if you take your foot off the brake, you'll smack that smug 6@5t@rd behind you. :)

But yeah, if I could walk to work, I would - alas, 2 workers, both of which have to commute separate ways in the home.

I love this, You can now hack a car, Back in my days the Hot Wire was the best hack. You can start the car with no Key :)

I ordered a DVD kit from Coastel Electronics Feb 17th of last year. I have the receipt to prove it. No product.

Every time, EVERY TIME, I call, the lady says "it will be shipping in a few weeks. I was told by end of summer, by thankggiving, by christmas, blah blah blah.

This lady is a compulsive liar, and doesn't care about her customer service.

When I called to complaign, she was unapologetic and just said, "Would you like me to cancel your order?"

If you like to be treated this way, go ahead and do business with them.

Mother of all hacks for me would be abilty to play DVDs on the DVD navigation system...

Ron Gremban was Technology Lead for our first conversion. More info about the benefits of adding bhybrids a "second small fuel tank fueled by electricity" that's cheaper/cleaner/domestic compared to gasoline at http://www.calcars.org -- read the FAQ for answers to basic questions, including relative benefits of electricity vs. gasoline, conversion options, and what we need to do to get car-makers to offer plug-in hybrids.
-- Felix Kramer, founder, California Cars Initiative

Why a plug-in hybrid? Electricity at gas equivalent prices is about $.70/gallon today. For those interested, see the webcast at www.pluginpartners.org.

How about a hack that moves the reverse beep to the rear, OUTSIDE of the car?

Do these hacks all apply to the older Prius model? I have a 2001, and i'm not familiar w/ some of the options mentioned.

For me the ultimate Prius Hack would be enabling Bluetooth on a car without that official package. The bluetooth chips are inexpensive enough that I suspect they're in all models, just disabled on some.

I couldn't justify spending all that extra cash for bluetooth when I could build my own interface 10x cheaper.

Even so, I'd love to get the onboard bluetooth working!

Does activating the EV mode void the warranty? It says it may, but does anyone know if it actually does? If something were to happen, could the hack be taken off and there is no way for the dealer to detect that it was there?
Is there a reason that it voids the warranty? Does the Ev mode thrash the electric motor or the batteries?

The odd thing about the EV mode is that it is standard in the European and Japanese Prius(es). However, for what I think I remember to be different taxation on "multi-fuel-type vehicles" on imports/US Cars, they removed this.

The "tax theory" being that if the vehicle can run *entirely* on electric by the users' choice, then the vehicle can be either gas or hybrid.

Anyways, since EV mode is actually designed into the Prius, using it correctly won't damage your car. However, the electric motor was designed to not go over 40mph, and could be damaged if you tried to go too fast in EV mode.

I don't know if installing the EV "mod" would void a US warranty. You may want to ask CoastalTech or checkout PriusChat.

There is also a hack to access the Navigation System while in motion. You have to re-do it every time you turn the car off though.

Hit the "Display" button on the outside of the touch screen and then select volume. Tap the upper left hand corner of the screen and then the lower left hand corner of the screen, the the upper corner again and then the lower corner again. A screen with several buttons comes up. (Don't press the others, I don't know what they do!) Press the one called "Override" and hold it for about 2 seconds. You will hear a beep and the button will stay selected. Hit back and then you will be able to access all navigation features while the car is in motion. You can even do the hack while the car is in motion.

I use it all the time, especailly when I have passengers who can operate the Nav. for me. You still have to hit the agree button before you can access it though, but paying Coastal for a hack you can do in a few seconds just didn't seem worth it to me.

Has anyone tried to activate the EV mode on a Prius prior to '04?

Is there one to make it all gas? I was thinking of hot-rodding my prius - maybe a throw in a turbo, remove the catalytic converter, and beef up the intake. Or, better yet, some sort of super gas + EV setting that was all power, no charge ...

After activating the EV mode can one go back and forth; activating it while driving in the city, then de-activating when getting on the highway?

i have a question how could or is it possible to place a solar panel in the back were the hatch is to help charge the battery i thought i my mind if i go to work and its setting in the full sun for 9 hrs a day it would charge the battery or in my drive way could you help me point me in the right direction please

green me john r blunk

This is that modification I was talking about that lets you use solely electric at lower mph's. interesting concept

Surfing for 06 Prius hacks, I've only seen Costal Electronics which is on the West Coast. Any like companies on the East Coast, in Wash-Balto areas?

plugging it in is ok but doing that is no better than stopping it at a gas station to fil it up.. How about self sustaining electric cars that don't need plugging in often if ever (except maybe if driven at night)??

Does anybody know how to turn off the backup beep or access destinations while moving for the navigation system in an 07 prius. I just purchased the car, and tried the odometer hold for beep removal.... didn't work, and neither did the upper left lower left corner touch for the nav system...
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Good site!!! Thanx!!!

I am a Prius owner on the small island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands where the maximum speed is 35mph and would like to make contact with other Prius owners to compare mpg and also to find a way of switching off the infernal reversing bleep permanently.

I have a 2006 Prius in the Netherlands. I also wish to turn off the reverse beep. The US fix will not work on European cars. Is it possible?

Is there a hack to regain control of the prius traction control
If you come to a slick hill -----forget it you will be there all day ---sometimes it's good to spin a wheel

I have a 2006 Prius Can i burn e-85 in it????

--
editor note: No. You can burn E10, though. Some people have used higher mixes than that, but E10 is the only one officially supported as far as I know.

I would like to be able to Plug-In My 2004 Prius. I hope very soon. This is very exciting. I would much rather fill up/Charge my vehicle at home, than have to fill up at some gas station. Plugging in is much simpler. Also, with hydrogen, why would I want to go to a station and fill up, those days are outdated. Filling up at home is the future of Transportation, Today!!!

To those who keep insisting that plugging in your hybrid is the same as stopping at the gas station - you clearly don't get it.

Refined petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel, require significant energy input prior to ever arriving at the pump for use in your auto (production of crude, processing as crude, transportation to a refinery, refining, and further transport to the end point). And then once it's in the car, it is not converted into usable energy in a very efficient manner. Generally speaking, auto engines are about 30% thermally efficient over their operating range. In other words, 70% of the energy stored in the fuel is wasted (dumped to the enviroment as HEAT). And that does not consider the energy "wasted" delivering the fuel to your vehicle.

Plugging in the hybrid allows it to recharge or maintain it's batteries using grid-derived energy. Grid-derived energy is mainly produced from coal or natural gas. Both of these fuel sources are sourced locally (or at least domestically) and require little to no refining or preparation. They also are much more efficient at using that fuel to produce electricity - a modern coal or natural gas plant pushes up to 45% efficiency with some natural gas plants (combined cycle units) well over 50% and some nearing 60%.

This argument is particularly poignant when a hybrid has been "hacked" for additional battery capacity. The car is able to store more of that efficient power rather recharge and charge at start up and during the early part of a drive.

Good to hear. This means the development cycle will be a lot quicker and that’s something we can all look forward to.

Best wishes,Freeworlddvd.

I am a Prius owner on the small town of texas where the maximum speed is 35mph and would like to make contact with other Prius owners to compare mpg and also to find a way of switching off the infernal reversing bleep permanently.

I have Prius also and this reversing bleep can be switched off in nisan techinal service . It will take about hour.

I have a solar panel made in China got at Harbor Freight Tools for $45. Used the adjustable posts to slip into the headrest slots. Also two other solar panels from Kragen Auto Parts on the dash. Another small one in the rear quarter window. Another on a hanging window ventilator. They all power the window ventillator and recharge a camcoder battery pack. But not enough juice yet to run my electric cooler quite not sure; still a work in process.

Personally I like the rear beeper to alert me that I am in reverse when there are a lot of other distractions. And I don't want it beeping outside to wake people up while backing into the garage.