Talk:Controllers Cost

The fact remains that the Toyota Prius 50-80KW VFD costs under $2000 in mass production.

The reason why Curtis and all the rest charge $2000-4000+ for a dc equivalent 100-200KW is the same reason why the Xantrex grid-tie inverters cost on average 80 cents a watt, and perform no better than the Prius' inverter, which is capable of the same task at 3-5 cents a watt.

Consider the fact that to maintain battery reliability, everyone, (not just automakers) need to keep cell count below 200 in a string. yet it is cheaper to have a 500 volt bus to run the motor. The solution is to hold the battery at 140-180 cells @ ~200 volt and build a bidirectional voltage converter into the battery casing @ 500V. In terms of DC controller cost you just doubled it by including a second converter. It is blatantly obvious that this is not the case, or we would have seen a comparable price increase just after automakers started doing this.