Gen 2 Prius 4wd?

Anything is possible with bags of money and time.

The question is..."why"?

Toyota does it in the current generation of the Prius, and has done it in the Highlander Hybrid since it first appeared. It's certainly possible, but controlling the rear unit properly, in coordination with the front drive, would be a challenge. The hybrid system control will likely be confused by the additional electrical load.

The question still stands..."why?"

Just wondering about a long term project car. My 08 is not so good in slick conditions and wondering if anything could be done.

Seems to be an awfully expensive way to avoid studded tires or chains.

If you're considering a project, an AWD EV conversion as a second car is cheaper and that way you have a reliable car as backup when your homebrew machine decides it wants your time (it's a bit like owning a cat).

You're also not carrying around all that extra mass to kill the efficiency for the 90% of driving you don't need AWD.

The other reason being I'm half a red neck from the sticks and live in the world of lifted trucks, 4x4s and everything else that goes with it. I definitely need to check out a AWD EV project. I'll probably leave the Prius alone but she's 14 years old and having rust issues, not sure how long I can keep her on the road.

My highlander is exactly what you are describing. The OEM hybrid system includes the MGR which is just an electric motor and a differential with a bunch of reduction. The issue here is that you need quite a bit of voltage to get it spinning at any appreciable rate.
I'm going about things, trying to keep as many systems stock but at the same time take over control of the rear motor with my own inverter or using the stock with some CAN editing hardware.

Babybluegen2 said:

The other reason being I'm half a red neck from the sticks and live in the world of lifted trucks, 4x4s and everything else that goes with it.

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Things may be changing in the ******* (red neck as one word gets censored, but fuck doesn't) world if you look at the comments here:

lj516 said:

My highlander is exactly what you are describing. The OEM hybrid system includes the MGR which is just an electric motor and a differential with a bunch of reduction...

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Yes... but the Highlander has a hybrid transaxle to supply the electrical energy, and a battery to store a bit of it. It's not clear where Babybluegen2 intends to get the power for the rear motor(s).

Edit: I'll admit that I was probably mixing this thread up with another one (not using a Prius) when I wrote the above.

brian_ said:

Yes... but the Highlander has a hybrid transaxle to supply the electrical energy, and a battery to store a bit of it. It's not clear where Babybluegen2 intends to get the power for the rear motor(s).

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Well as long as it's still a prius... they are the same just rated at 250kw instead of 80. Exact same inverter design minus a small section for the rear wheels. This is easily added with another prius gen 2 or 3 inverter.

lj516 said:

Well as long as it's still a prius... they are the same just rated at 250kw instead of 80. Exact same inverter design minus a small section for the rear wheels. This is easily added with another prius gen 2 or 3 inverter.

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It's just a question of capacities: everything should be larger (MG1 and the battery being the relevant parts) in a Highlander or RAV4. I suppose it's not a big concern for very low-traction conditions and brief periods; I don't know if the current "eAWD" Prius has any greater capacities than the base FWD version.

brian_ said:

It's just a question of capacities: everything should be larger (MG1 and the battery being the relevant parts) in a Highlander or RAV4. I suppose it's not a big concern for very low-traction conditions and brief periods; I don't know if the current "eAWD" Prius has any greater capacities than the base FWD version.

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The 80kw generator in the prius is capable of powering it (50kw rated), it would help massively to replace the stock NiMh with some A123 cells at the very least. Prius is 3 LFP cells, highlander is 4 to direct replace the nickel blade modules.

go figure, red neck is offensive. what a world we live in.