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Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m on a hybrid/alternative fuel car kick lately. What can I say, I run in spurts. There are lots of problems with hybrids these days. The first one has to do with cost. The cost/benefit on the financial side just isn’t really there. The initial cost, ongoing maintenance, and battery replacement make it pretty untenable in my mind. Then you have battery disposal issues. But AFS Trinity has an SUV hybrid (XH-150) now, not a concept, that can do 150mpg running in hybrid mode. And it can do all electric mode up to 40 miles. Yep, that counts for around 80% of American commutes.
Now, first thing I thought was, “Great, but what about the batteries.” Well, AFS says that their ultra-capacitors protect their batteries from stress. And that should extend battery life up to ten years (150k miles). Wow. If that’s true, then that immediately changes the ballgame. Now, the HX-150 also can go 400 miles in hybrid mode. So, I guess that’s a 440 mile range? Now, it’s that type of performance that could really get people interested in hybrids. They are also calculating about 3.5 years to recoup your cost. They include hybrid incentives in that calculation. I didn’t see maintenance in there. And the 0-60 figures are good too.
Top speed is 87mph. That will do most people, I hope. Now, they did fuel costs based on: “Weekly fuel cost based on gasoline at $3.50/gallon and 40 miles/day of driving Monday through Saturday and 100 miles of driving on Sunday for a total of 340 miles.” The cost is, drum roll please, $7.93 weekly gas cost and $7.56 weekly electric cost, for a grand total of $15.49. How does that compare to your gas bill these days? Electric cost was calculated at off-peak costs of 6 cents/kWh.
This video explains their “Extreme Hybrid” drive train:
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