A Hybrid Technology That Can Pay for Itself

January 15, 2008, 2:58PM
BusinessWeek.com

The first economically viable, commercially-available hybrid auto technology?

Buying a hybrid is currently a pastime for early adopters and those who are prepared to pay to salve their environmental conscience . Do the return-on-investment (ROI) math and you'll realize that the fuel savings never bridge the economic rationale gap because of the higher initial cost of hybrids. That appears about to change! Ultra-capacitor-based energy storage systems have long promised a breakthrough for the automotive industry and AFS Trinity's announcement of the real world performance specs of its plug-in hybrid system is landmark. The company's patent-pending Extreme Hybrid (XH) technology employs a proprietary dual energy storage system that combines Lithium-Ion batteries and ultra capacitors with control electronics. In just completed road tests, a 2007 Saturn VUE Green Line SUV fitted with an XH drive train, exceeded 150 mpg, and improved the zero to sixty time from 12.5 seconds, to 11.6 second running in electric-only mode -- something it can do for 40 miles at a stretch. The punchline is that in hybrid mode, it runs 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds, which is faster than a Porsche Cayenne. Whatsmore, based on driving 340 miles a week, the company's consumer payback analysis suggests the technology will pay for itself in less than four years -- this appears to be the first economically viable, commercially-available hybrid auto technology.

Plug-in hybrids offer the prospect of dramatically extending the all-electric vehicle (EV) mode of hybrid vehicles which can be recharged using grid electricity (typically overnight using discounted off-peak power) and several NAIAS announcements indicated that after years of recalcitrance, Toyota looks set to produce a plug-in, roughly at the same time as Toyota's arch rival, GM. On available info, neither appear close to the performance of the AFS Trinity system.

"Extreme Hybrids don't need high priced technology and don't require new or expensive fuels, such as hydrogen, which, according to Argonne National Labs, will cost twice as much as gasoline at the pump and require installation of an infrastructure costing half a trillion dollars. The Extreme Hybrid is not a concept," said AFS Trinity CEO Edward W. Furia, "but a practical alternative that relies on cheap electricity from America's vast existing energy infrastructure--the electric power grid." Furia also pointed to a recent U.S. DOE study that concluded sufficient excess electrical generating and transmission capacity exists today during off-peak hours in America's power grid to recharge 84% of America's light duty car, truck and SUV fleet -- 184 million vehicles -- even if they were all converted to plug-in hybrid drive trains. The Extreme Hybrid tests just completed at Michelin's Laurens Proving Grounds in South Carolina produced...more than 150 miles per gallon of gasoline based on the EPA Combined Urban/Highway Driving Cycle with 6 days per week of 40 miles per day in all electric mode and one day at 100 miles with assistance of the gas engine...

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