PICC Certified Prius Plug-In Installer
Available now! Plug-in Prius upgrades from Plug-In Conversions Corporation (PICC), the true “third generation” Prius!
Best performance to date of any plug-in conversion platform, backed by Luscious Garage, full service hybrid specialists with the most plug-in Prius experience.
We have the technical expertise, professionalism, and personal attention to make your conversion a legitimate and rewarding experience.
Conversion specs:
Fits: Toyota Prius, model years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Battery: 6.1 kWh Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), 203V nominal
All-Electric Range: 25 miles
Top EV Speed: 34MPH base, 70 MPH high speed optional
Charge Input: 120V (240V optional)
Charge Time, 120V: 6 hours
Fast Charge, 240V: 2 hours
Installation time: 2 days
Cost: $12,500
High Speed EV option: $2000-2500 (TBD)
Fast Charge option: $1000
Test drives available now! Email Carolyn for more information or appointments
Luscious Garage PICC conversions to date: 5
Omaha Public Power District
Luscious Shop Car (pictured)
Gold Peak Battery
China Light and Power
Hong Kong Electric
(blog on Hong Kong conversions to follow)
Read more from Green Car Congress...
Read more from EV World...
Read more about Plug-In Conversions Corp
Read more about Gold Peak Battery
Kim Adelman, CEO of PICC, with his company car, Poway, CA:
PICC Battery Box with lid removed, Gold Peak modules, 168 Total, which they’ve innovated for over 20 years
LG Shop Car with factory battery removed (PICC system replaces factory battery, which we then use to build replacement packs for earlier model Prius):
Final product installed, very clean, safe installation
No loss of cargo space or change to interior panels:
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Bob Dylan Special: $50 Oil Change
Originally named the “Depression Special”, our $50 Oil Change has been renamed (in a customer contest) “The times they are a changin’” Special (which I’m editing to the Bob Dylan Special).
Read the lyrics to Dylan’s timeless tune (via BobDylan.com)
Read the original blog:
Loss leaders are nothing but trouble. “Too good to be true.” “You get what you pay for.” My poor ear has been a dumping ground for automotive service trauma. Just last week: an 07 Prius with 30k miles being sold a $300 injector cleaning at the dealer!!!
Don’t even get me started!
That said, times are tough; why make it worse? Do not, DO NOT take risks with your vehicle maintenance. Let Mama Luscious take care of you. We don’t manipulate, threaten, pander, or otherwise bullshit. We’re eternal idealists who want to fix your car. All we ask is that you accept our altruism and tell your friends…
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Gold Peak Battery
The core of LG’s plug-in conversions, supplied by Plug-In Conversions Corp (PICC), is a 6.1kWh battery pack, comprised of 168 nickel metal hydride (NiMH) cells from Gold Peak Battery (GP). A global battery manufacturer headquartered in Hong Kong, 
GP has been in business for 45 years and has produced high capacity rechargeable NiMH cells for two decades.
Last year GP purchased a minority interest in PICC and is therefore invested in seeing the Prius plug-in conversions succeed. This brings major manufacturing and business resources to bear in producing the best plug-in conversion system currently available and demonstrates GPs commitment to automotive applications. (Pic: GP batteries in LG’s conversion kit)
GP is hardly new to EVs: they already supply the batteries for the Vetrix scooter, other electric-assisted pedal bikes, and previously supplied energy storage devices for small run OEM products developed during the original ZEV mandate. 
Beyond cars, they are the largest producer of rechargeable NiMH batteries outside of Japan. (Pic: Production lab in Hong Kong; note Vectrix scooter on right)
Indeed because they have been producing NiMH for so long, they were early to apply for a license to the original Ovonics patent on the chemistry, and their license specifically includes 4-wheeled vehicle applications. Legal missteps by other companies (including Panasonic and Toyota), and ownership of Ovonics by Cobasys (joint venture with Chevron) and the patent along with it, have otherwise stymied use of NiMH, giving Gold Peak the advantage.
(Patent encumbrance for 4-wheel applications is the main reason why NiMH has not seen widespread use in cars, not because the chemistry is inadequate, which in turn has delayed EV applications. It is also a driving force behind the development of lithium-ion batteries to which the patent does not apply.)
Link to Gold Peak Batteries
Link to Gold Peak International
Link to Gold Peak North America
Link to EVB - GP subsidiary that supplies the NiMH cells (GP30EVH) for the Prius Conversion
Read more on LG’s Plug-In Conversions
(Pic: Carolyn at EVB lab, Gold Peak Building, Hong Kong, May 2009)
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ART IN THE SHOP: Patrick Smith “LIFEnearDEATH”
Patrick Smith
LIFEnearDEATH
Portraits from a Hospice
July 7th - August 7th
Join us for the reception:
Saturday, July 11th, 4-7
“This series of portraits shows the faces of patients living in a hospice. The patients are of many ages, from early forties to late eighties. They are dying of various illnesses—stroke, congestive heart disease, emphysema, cancer, AIDS, alcoholism, drug addiction—and of simple old age. Most of the people in the portraits are now dead. A few live on bearing the daily efforts of life. Some are vividly aware of their condition, some are in dementia or wandering the dreamy labyrinth of final days. Some are on the private, knowing journey through medicated pain. The portraits are meant to show that life does not surrender itself until the only final moment; and to dream that, in a way, no one dies, because there is no land between life and death. There is the ultimate heroism, and then the rest.”
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Carolyn presents on plug-ins for Perfect Sky’s “train the trainer”
Thanks again to Jack Rosebro of Perfect Sky hybrid training for the invitation to teach and for promoting the crux and potential of hybrid technology. The “train the trainer” 3-day course took place at Skyline College, home to one of the best automotive training programs in the country, and included instructors from all over North America. Carolyn lectured for 75 minutes on plug-in conversion history, system architecture, benefits, and technical challenges, and demonstrated the PICC system currently available from LG with test drives in the shop car.
