An ‘Extreme Hybrid’ 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 petrol – has moved closer to reality, according to AFS Trinity Power Corporation and automotive engineering firm Ricardo.
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The two firms have agreed to work together to design, test and develop the drive train and build the initial systems that are expected to be licensed by AFS Trinity to carmakers worldwide.
Ricardo CEP Dave Shemmans said: “After the Extreme Hybrid is ready to be licensed to OEM’s, Ricardo intends to provide assistance to the world’s automakers integrating the XH plug-in hybrid drive train into their specific vehicular platforms.”
AFS Trinity chairman and CEO Edward Furia said: “The power electronics, ultra-capacitors, batteries, motors and other related advanced components that we will integrate with Ricardo’s help into the 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… and we are hopeful of seeing it on the road in the near future.”
Furia said Ricardo’s participation in development, system integration, testing and manufacturing “will take years off the time needed to take the Extreme Hybrid plug-in from a technical wonder to cars, SUVs and trucks that consumers will find highly attractive.”
Furia, one of the founders of AFS Trinity, was a director of the first earth day and earth week in 1970 in Philadelphia and was also the first regional administrator of the US EPA’s Middle Atlantic office.
The technology’s extraordinary fuel economy derives from the fact that most of the time it will burn no petrol 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 petrol.
Shemmans added: “We decided to enter into this technology partnership with AFS Trinity because we are of the view that the plug-in hybrid has the potential to become the next generation in hybrid vehicle development.”
