i whant to know if toyota prius will run only on battery with no gas in the tank?

Alexander

if it dose then i can charge the battery from a solar panel

John Paul

No your car is designed to run on both propuslsion systems motor generator and batterys all working with each other.Do not run the Lithium Ion Battery down to less than 30%. Nissan Hybrid ( Senergy ) Just like Toyota there has been several cases where the owners ran out of fuel and kept driving until all the batterys are dead. After replenishing the gasoline and waiting for the Li-Ion battery to sit over night the next morning the Internal combustion motor started back up and in about 4 or 5 hours everything seemed just fine.. Who knows the dammage to the $5,000 battery pack. Photo-Voltaic cells will not generate the necessary Amps to recharge the big battery. Toyota is comming out in 2010 with a Solar panel roof Prius, Camry that will be wired into each of the big battery cells. Remember only 35 first responders and auto technicians have died so far working on live 255 Volt and motor 650v circuits. Let's not add your name to that list.

pinball_fan

It will run for a short distance, but it won't be happy (it will light-up plenty of warning lights on the dashboard, including the "check engine" light). Toyota specifically warns against doing this.































You'll need a big solar panel to charge it, regardless. And you'd better know what you're doing: That's not a flashlight battery back there, 200+ Volts at 100 Amps is not something for an electrical novice to be playing with.































Edit: Another answer you received has some value to it, but I'd expect someone that works on cars for a living to know that the battery does NOT use lithium-ion technology. It's Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH). No generally available hybrids are using Lithium-Ion yet.

GUS0921

IF I WAS YOU I WOULD LISTEN TO JOHN PAUL.THERE IS NO BETTER ANSWER THAN THE ONE HE JUST GAVE YOU.

wondering

On a stock NHW20 (2004-current) HV battery driving on electric from all green bars on the MFD battery meter (~82% true SOC) to 1 pink bar (~40% true SOC) will only take you about 2 miles. Even if you expanded the battery capacity and ran without gas you wouldn't get very far since the trans-axle lubrication fluid pump is driven only by the gas engine so if the engine crank isn't turning the bearings aren't getting fresh fluid and will dry out and either lock up or self destruct. BTW the current battery chemistry is NiMh not Li-Ion

Joeschmoe

The Prius battery has enough charge to move the car for about 1-2 miles on electric once you run out of gasoline, but you DO NOT want to do this.































The hybrid battery pack needs to maintain a charge state between 60%-80% for longevity. Deep-discharging the battery by running out of gas is abuse and will shorten its lifespan, and it may void your battery's 8-year / 100,000-mile warranty.































As a rule, I fuel up my Prius whenever I see the fuel gauge down to two tics. I'm not going to put my 8-year / 100,000-mile warranty at risk.

Toyota Tech Guy

There are conversion kits available. Toyota does not recommend them and will not warranty a car that has one. If the car is out of warranty you can try this.















http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TOYOT...QQcmdZViewItem















It says you can go 40 miles on straight electric.















A solar panel can be added to help charge it but would not do much. It would require more panels than would be reasonable to carry on the car.















I still would leave some gas in the car though!