Any ideas about using a scrapped Prius?

3235 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by zaxxon, Nov 6, 2010

Bentwire

Discussion Starter · Nov 4, 2010

Hi
I found a scrapped 2007 Prius at the junkyard and was wondering if it is worth it to salvage the motor and controller to put into a VW Beetle (old type). From what I can dig up it's a MG2 motor that runs at 500 Volts, and according to what I can find, the pack voltage is around 288V, which it boosts to power the motor. My real question: Is it worth all the headache to try and get the controller and motor to work without the car it came in or just buy a matched BLDC motor and controller from China? Or should I buy the motor and power it with a generic AC motor contoller?
Help Please!

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Bowser330

· #2 · Nov 5, 2010

Bentwire said:
Hi
I found a scrapped 2007 Prius at the junkyard and was wondering if it is worth it to salvage the motor and controller to put into a VW Beetle (old type). From what I can dig up it's a MG2 motor that runs at 500 Volts, and according to what I can find, the pack voltage is around 288V, which it boosts to power the motor. My real question: Is it worth all the headache to try and get the controller and motor to work without the car it came in or just buy a matched BLDC motor and controller from China? Or should I buy the motor and power it with a generic AC motor contoller?
Help Please!

From what i remember the prius e-motor is pretty weak, you'd be best to spend your money on a DC setup and use the rest of the money, you would have spent on the AC setup, to buy more/better batteries.

If the price of the e-motor and controller are really cheap from the junkyard i would buy them and try to sell them on ebay seperately, the profit could help you towards your AC or DC EV setup.

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IamIan

· #3 · Nov 5, 2010

Bentwire said:
Hi
I found a scrapped 2007 Prius at the junkyard and was wondering if it is worth it to salvage the motor and controller to put into a VW Beetle (old type). From what I can dig up it's a MG2 motor that runs at 500 Volts, and according to what I can find, the pack voltage is around 288V, which it boosts to power the motor. My real question: Is it worth all the headache to try and get the controller and motor to work without the car it came in or just buy a matched BLDC motor and controller from China? Or should I buy the motor and power it with a generic AC motor contoller?
Help Please!

It is only 'worth it' if you personally enjoy that kind of work .... it will not be as easy or straight forward as just buying a ready to use product that comes with technical support... Toyota will not help you with this project.

some people are working with this idea though... as seen

http://99mpg.com/Projectcars/evinsight/

and discussed

http://www.insightcentral.net/forum...al-issues/17490-ev-insight-prius-heart-4.html

If you want some more information about the pruis system , MG1 & MG2 etc... one of the best places to go is ... priuschat.com

best of luck if you do it ... but it is a fair amount of work... putting the work aside ... the rise of HEVs and PHEVs, and EVs etc... will offer more and more opportunities for lower cost good performing EV components to be salvaged from junk yards and such ... but only for those willing to put in the work to make them work.

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zaxxon

· #4 · Nov 6, 2010

Bentwire said:
Hi
I found a scrapped 2007 Prius at the junkyard and was wondering if it is worth it to salvage the motor and controller to put into a VW Beetle (old type). From what I can dig up it's a MG2 motor that runs at 500 Volts, and according to what I can find, the pack voltage is around 288V, which it boosts to power the motor. My real question: Is it worth all the headache to try and get the controller and motor to work without the car it came in or just buy a matched BLDC motor and controller from China? Or should I buy the motor and power it with a generic AC motor contoller?
Help Please!

I have been trying to use a microcontroller to control the Prius Inverter to drive an EV induction motor. Unless you have prior experience in power electronics and motor controls or this is your first EV project I would not recommend the Prius component approach. To adapt the motor will require considerable mechanical work.

If you want to do it you should look at bart_dood 's project www.voltswagen.blogspot.com .

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