A Plug-In Hybrid Minus the Plug

One of the contradictions of plug-in hybrid vehicles is that the place they are most useful — the city — is the place you’ll likely have to park somewhere where you won’t have access to an electrical outlet.

Yet every once in a while an idea comes along that seems so perfect and self-evident, you almost can’t believe someone hasn’t thought of it already. That’s the way we feel about MIRA’s plugless plug-in hybrid vehicle system, H4V.

For city drivers with no garage and no access to a socket when they park their car at night, this is perfect. It works like so: The vehicle has three removable lithium ion phosphate battery packs in the trunk that you can pull out and take with you. Once charged, you simply slip them back in and you’re good to go. MIRA estimates the cost of retrofitting a vehicle at about $3,950.

This presents the possibility that the true future of electric vehicles involves exchangeable batteries. Imagine pulling into a gas station and exchanging your vehicle’s spent battery for a new one. As our senior editor David Thomas puts it, it’s “kind of like a propane exchange at Home Depot.”

No Plug? No Problem. MIRA Debuts the “Plugless Plug-In Hybrid” (AutoblogGreen)