MIRA's H4V 'plugless plug-in hybrid' is surprisingly clever

We're surprised this hasn't been though up before, which means it probably isn't as simple as it sounds. MIRA's got a new plug-in hybrid in the works that skips the whole plug aspect. Instead of plugging the whole car into an outlet, you can pull out any of the three battery packs in the trunk and hook 'em into the wall. That means the car doesn't have to have direct access to a plug to be able to juice up, you just take the batteries to where the power's at and commence charging. They're calling the system H4V, and are powering the unit on lithium ion phosphate batteries. MIRA expects the retrofit to an existing car to cost about £2000 (around $3950 US).

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2008 4:14AM]

This is kind of dumb... I would much rather bring an extension cord or two out to my car than a heavy battery in to a plug. In fact this is really dumb.

I like plug in hybrids and all, but this is like seriously lame.

[RufusWhite Posted Apr 25th 2008 5:02AM]

Actually, it's seriously practical - here in Ibiza parking on the street is pretty much your only option. A few apartment blocks have underground parking, but not many. I usually end up having to park half a mile from my house, more often than not on a different street. Do you seriously expect everybody to be running extension cords all over the roads?

I can't imagine Ibiza is the only place like this... in fact I'd go so far as to say that the parking in most European cities is equally abysmal.

Rufus

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2008 3:51AM]

And I complain when I have to unload groceries from my trunk.

[Zorque Posted Apr 25th 2008 3:55AM]

I guess that's not a bad price for 3 gigantic batteries, considering a laptop charger cable, sans battery, often costs around $90.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2008 6:22AM]

What's the environmental impact from the power plants that will have to produce the power to send electricity miles away to charge one of these bad boys? Isn't this just a way to divert the process of burning fossil fuels from your car to the power plant? How much money would an electric car owner save on fuel when they're still paying for loads of electricity?

So many questions, I know... But I just don't know if I buy the current environmental movement hook, line and sinker. It's currently a mere fashion trend, but is there data to back it up?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2008 10:33AM]

That is why there is such a movement to move power production toward solar, wind, and nuclear.

[Aguiluz Posted Apr 25th 2008 7:26AM]

mushrooshi? Well, what got into you? You are not like that as far as I can tell. :-?

[blash Posted Apr 25th 2008 7:38AM]

It's a nice idea - basically, when you buy the car/mod kit, instead of getting 3 batteries you would get 6 - 3 are in your car, and 3 are in a charging station at home. Your home would be your refueling station, and you would actually be able to "refuel" in about the same amount of time as a gasoline car - just switch out the empty ones with the full ones that were in the charger, boom you have a full tank of "gas" and your empty batteries start recharging. Once people start to buy these cars, gas stations will start to carry the batteries and people will be able to drive up to a station and replace the batteries away from home.

The only real objectives here are: 1) how to get the batteries lighter, not just so that people don't suffer hernias but to make the car lighter and therefore more efficient, 2) make the actual batteries cheaper, so that stations don't get ripped off if someone drops off a defunct battery that is either counterfeit or doesn't charge or something like that so of course 3) develop a way to determine how much charge a particular battery can hold pretty quickly so that a station can decline to exchange the battery - but this may not be necessary if this gets blown up to a national scale, because we could create a program to exchange the batteries out - old batteries get sold back to the company and new batteries enter circulation, kind of like money in a bank, and part of the price of electricity in a station would be to help the companies afford putting new batteries into "circulation".

[Jon AU Posted Apr 25th 2008 10:03AM]

that car looks like a B7 Audi A4.

anyway, but doesn't hybrids recharge e.g. during braking? and if you recharge hybrids (in this case not electric cars) don't you defeat the purpose of a green car because the power from your wall sockets aren't so green either?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2008 10:35AM]

It does, but, plug in hybrids have much larger batteries that allow the engine to depend less on the internal combustion engine. The charging that occurs while going down hills or rolling to a stop isn't enough to fully charge these batteries.

[bakedbeans6 Posted Apr 25th 2008 10:25AM]

Put a nuclear reactor in your garage...

Problem solved.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/19/toshibas-building-a-micro-nuclear-reactor-for-your-garage/

[Ed T Posted Apr 25th 2008 10:46AM]

Seriously stupid idea. These batteries are large and heavy - care to guess what it would cost if one were dropped? $5K ? - ouch!

ER bills for setting broken foot bones additional...

[Guspaz Posted Apr 25th 2008 11:26AM]

I don't get it, what's clever about this?

Option 1: When my car is in the driveway or garage, plug it into a nearby standard AC wall socket

Option 2: Take two or three trips back and forth lugging 50kg of batteries every time I arrive or depart with my car

I see zero advantages to option 2. The only possible advantage would be that you can charge your car when it isn't near a power socket, but the disadvantage of having to schlep multiple enormously heavy batteries sort of nullifies that advantage.

Better idea: Power sockets in parking metres, and you can pay for a certain amount of time of electricity just like you pay for a certain amount of time of parking.

As in, I park at a parking metre, normally I'd put in (say) $15 to park for an hour. Maybe I could toss in another $5 to get an hour of power charging.

Downside, of course, is that people might try to unplug your car and plug something else in (solution: lock the socket until owner returns so plug can't be removed by just anybody) or people might try to cut the cord.

[verysexyelephant Posted Apr 25th 2008 5:22PM]

this would be great. I live on campus so electricity is free.. kinda awkward to explain why I shouldn't pay if they see my car plugged into the wall, but no one would take the time to look for these in my room

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2008 2:04PM]

This concept could be very useful in cities, when you have to park your car in the streets.
-The case needs to look better though, carrying these in the hallway every day makes you look way too geeky, or even worse, someone might suddenly think you carry a bomb around :D
- It should have motorized wheels so you don't have to drag, and it should be able to handle stairs somehow, so you could easily handle bigger and heavier battery packs.
- There should be some mechanism that automatically lifts the battery pack into its place in the car, and makes sure it gets connected.
Good concept, but it looks like there is way to go...