Another company, AFS Trinity, is entering the plug-in hybrid race. Quoting from their press release:
An Extreme Hybrid(TM) car -- which plugs into house current from the power grid for most of its power and is expected to give the average driver more than 250 miles per gallon of gasoline -- moved closer to reality according to news from AFS Trinity Power Corporation and the leading global automotive engineering firm, Ricardo. ....
In related news, Edward W. Furia, Chairman and CEO of AFS Trinity, said, "The power electronics, ultra-capacitors, batteries, motors and other related advanced components that we will integrate with Ricardo's help into the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train are all advancing rapidly and reducing in cost. Some of the components will come from third party vendors whom Ricardo will help us identify and vet, and other parts will come from previous AFS Trinity work on NASA, DOT, and DARPA government contracts and internal R&D programs. A truly practical and reliable plug-in hybrid technology is now emerging -- it's called the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train and we are hopeful of seeing it on the road in the near future."The Extreme Hybrid(TM)'s extraordinary fuel economy derives from the fact that most of the time it will burn no gasoline at all -- it will operate on electricity obtained from the power grid through night-time off-peak charging, but for trips longer than 40 miles, it will operate on its conventional hybrid power sub-system for up to 500 miles. There is also no reason why such vehicles could not eventually become completely petroleum-free by burning so-called bio-derived fuels such as ethanol instead of gasoline. ....
AFS Trinity and Ricardo have agreed to work together to design, test and develop the Extreme Hybrid(TM) drive train and build the initial systems that are expected to be licensed by AFS Trinity to carmakers worldwide.
AFS Trinity Power Corporation is a privately-owned Delaware corporation headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., that has engaged in the development of Fast Energy Storage(TM) power systems for vehicular, spacecraft and stationary power systems.
AFS Trinity's focus, up to know, has been developing advanced flywheel systems for power quality, distributed generation, light rail power management, alternative energy systems hybrid electric vehicles, and spacecraft.
This is another approach to getting the plug-in hybrid off the drawing board and onto the street until a major auto company decides to get into the business. It will be interesting to see which approach wins or whether a niche market for these vehicles will develop. A couple of firms are taking this approach to apply regular hybrid technology to trucks, buses and trains where they have the field almost too themselves, but competing against major automakers is another thing, unless they develop something that the majors want to buy. Accelerated Composites has three technologies, streamlining, lightweight composite construction and plug-in technology all going in their favor and may stand a better chance, although their design is for a 2 passenger car which has limited appeal.
Resources:
AFS Trinity press release
AFS Trinity Power Corporation, Bellevue,WA
Technorati tags: vehicles, plug-in hybrids, energy, technology
Plug in hybrids have huge potential. GM is heading toward bankruptcy when they could have been on top of the heap by developing plugin hypbrids. What stupidity.
As for petroleum free biofueled hybrids, please try to promote butanol more. Butanol is a much better fuel for substituting in place of gasoline.
Posted by: Mikhal | February 09, 2006 at 08:51 AM