The future is here....

Wonder if Americans would buy it or not....

Quote :

"AFS Trinity Power Corporation today filed a patent application disclosing the company’s new technology for an “Extreme Hybrid” car capable of carrying the average American motorist more than 250 miles on a single gallon of gasoline or ethanol. The Extreme Hybrid will plug into a house’s electrical current overnight and could run without gasoline or ethanol for the 40 miles that the average American drives each day, the company said. For longer trips, the vehicle would operate as a conventional hybrid that efficiently burns gasoline or ethanol. “The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that the average American drives 300 miles per week,” company CEO Edward W. Furia said. “Most days Americans drive 40 miles or less. At $3 a gallon, this costs about $48 a week for a conventional 20 mpg car and $36 if the car can get 25 mpg. The most efficient conventional hybrids get about 50 mpg which means $19 a week. By comparison, the Extreme Hybrid will use less than $8 per week total for fuel and electricity.” AFS Trinity plans to build the XH drive train with the help of UK-based Ricardo plc, an automotive design and engineering firm. AFS Trinity and Ricardo have signed a “mutually exclusive Technology Partnership Agreement” to work together to develop the plug-in hybrid technology. With sufficient funding they expect that XH demonstration vehicles could be in the hands of fleet owners in two years and could be licensed for mass production by car makers in three years. The Patent and the Technology The AFS Trinity patent filing discloses that Fast Energy Storage technology, including ultracapacitors, controllers and power electronics, will enable the Extreme Hybrid to “overcome the limitations of the energy storage components of conventional hybrids and other plug-in designs.” “This technology will permit a car to travel the entire 40 miles of an average American’s daily driving in all-electric mode, without giving up rapid acceleration or the ability to travel at highway speeds, all without burning a drop of gasoline,” Furia said. The patent filing also discloses that idle XH vehicles will be capable of sending power back into the grid through a vehicle to grid – V2G – subsystem, which will help stabilize the power grid and reduce XH owners’ cost of electricity. “The Extreme Hybrid won’t only cost less to operate on a daily basis, it will also be the first hybrid that will save enough money from reduced operating costs to more than offset the higher purchase price of the car,” added Furia. “In fact, over five years, we estimate that the XH owner will be $11,000 ahead and, over 10 years, $22,000 ahead.” Filling up once every 10 weeks “The advantages to the environment and our independence from foreign oil are obvious, but the reason we believe consumers will want this car is because they will save money and because the performance of the XH will be no different than that of conventional cars,” Furia said. “To recharge the Extreme Hybrid for your daily driving you will need to plug in your car to house current every night, but the average American will only have to fill up with gasoline or ethanol once every 10 weeks or so unless they take a longer trip.”"

5/5/2006 10:41:55 AM

option 1: buy gas and use it in my car

option 2: buy electricity and use it in my car.. this obviously pollutes less, because power plants dont cause any pollution...

5/5/2006 10:47:34 AM

^ While it is true that they do cause pollution, they are generally higher in efficencey than any car, even after the transmission to your house and into the car.

Figure most cars are at what? 10% thermal eff or less?

GE's most advanced Combined Cycle Gas Turbine electric plant runs at over 60% thermal eff.
Our lowest plant is at about 55%

Then there is nuclear power too, beethead.

[Edited on May 5, 2006 at 11:09 AM. Reason : /]

5/5/2006 11:08:36 AM

more

http://www.worldcarfans.com/news.cfm/newsid/
2060505.007/country/acf/general_acf/250mpg-extreme-hybrid-plugin-car

[Edited on May 8, 2006 at 8:15 PM. Reason : -]

5/5/2006 11:10:31 AM

rolling blackouts

5/5/2006 11:22:59 AM

Where are the HP/TQ numbers? What's its 0-60 times? 1/4 mile times? Skidpad G's?

5/5/2006 11:23:53 AM

^^^^ what about when you have to replace the batteries and put that old ones in a landfill... that's good for the environment...

[Edited on May 5, 2006 at 11:34 AM. Reason : clarity]

5/5/2006 11:33:53 AM

i bet it'll be ugly as fuck! i don't understand why a decent looking fuel economy car can't be made. i would consider buying one if it looked like a porsche, or even a bmw 3-series.

5/5/2006 12:05:55 PM

Superhybrid, that just sounds f'n funny. Mornic even Hahahaaaaaaaaa

5/5/2006 12:09:36 PM

i spent less than $1000 on gas in the past 365 days.

01 civic ex, ~300 miles per week.

i cant imagine there would be anything that would save me $11,000 over 5 years.

especially considering it will have some outrageous entry pricing to recoup development costs.

5/5/2006 12:17:15 PM

Quote :

"^^^^ what about when you have to replace the batteries and put that old ones in a landfill... that's good for the environment..."

i thought you could recycle 90% plus of rechargeable batteries.

5/5/2006 3:35:42 PM

fuck it,

I'm getting a segway

(Actually in two weeks I'll have access to a segway that has big ole taars for beach use, we're gonna get drunk and do time trial races)

5/5/2006 3:41:31 PM

Quote :

"i spent less than $1000 on gas in the past 365 days. "

5/5/2006 3:43:32 PM

^^ yeah.. maybe...

i think it's cool that people are trying to make autos more efficient.. but i just wish they would push more for alternative fuels... and i still feel that biodiesel is where it's at... someone needs to start mass producing that stuff

5/5/2006 3:43:57 PM

a regular powerplant burns coal at a rate of 20 tons per second.

5/5/2006 5:54:35 PM

yeah but you get 100 MW

5/5/2006 6:36:08 PM

OK. Speaking of alternative fuels--GM is pushing their "live green, go yellow" ad campaign for E85 ethanol pretty hard. If this stuff is made from a renewable resource, and evidently it's not too difficult to produce an engine that will accept it or gasoline, why don't we see it gaining market share? Why aren't there E85 pumps at gas stations? What's the catch?

5/5/2006 6:36:52 PM

E85 costs more than real gas and doesn't get better mileage

5/5/2006 6:58:50 PM

Quote :

"Then there is nuclear power too, beethead."

They wish they got 60% thermal eff. In fact if you could get a nuke up to that high you would be a very rich man.

But of course there are no green house gasses.

5/5/2006 8:48:41 PM

Quote :

"and i still feel that biodiesel is where it's at... someone needs to start mass producing that stuff "

Except you'd be wrong. If we converted all the farmland in america JUST to producing flax or any other biodiesel crop, it would support about 10% of our fuel needs.

It can't be mass produced economically. Biodiesel will be great as a 5-8% additive to petro diesel, but that's as far as it's going to get on a mass-market scale.

Quote :

"OK. Speaking of alternative fuels--GM is pushing their "live green, go yellow" ad campaign for E85 ethanol pretty hard. If this stuff is made from a renewable resource, and evidently it's not too difficult to produce an engine that will accept it or gasoline, why don't we see it gaining market share? Why aren't there E85 pumps at gas stations? What's the catch? "

Same problem as biodiesel, the yield for ethanol from plant crops is too low for it to be usable for mass market, and making ethanol from petroleum is pretty retarded.

The best alternative i've seen that actually has some potential on a mass scale is using methanol as a carrier fuel, and then converting it to other usable forms at static locations (aka hydrogen, ethanol, etc).

5/6/2006 12:00:24 AM

The battery issue may be resolved soon. I ate lunch with my dad yesterday and he was talking to a group at ncsu working with new high storage batteries and a chemical additive to pull out the broken down chemicals.

Right now you have to replace the rechargeable batteries on an electric car within like 5-6 years (depends on battery type). A new type of battery based on a liquid (think Demolition man here) will hold a charge sufficient enough to let a car travel 150 miles. here's the problems they are encountering

1) How to mix the additive into the tank holding the gel. The additive needs to mix thoroughly to pull out the broken down chemicals.

2) How to remove the waste from the additive mixture. It forms some hard substance so a mesh would work to remove it.

3) Solving the above how to make it cost efficient. Currently the gel costs about $3000 to fill a 16 gallon tank. I think this is partially solve since it can be included with the original price and when maintanance is done remove the bad stuff and fill it back up.

So far they haven't had the issue of waste building up around the contacts that most gels have had decreasing the charge. It still has some build up but nothing that 6 month maintanance can't fix. Basically your car slows down because the lack of charge able to get through the contacts.

I'd love to hear more about this technology.

5/6/2006 8:05:50 AM

Eeeeeeeeeeerm, theres another solution to this problem..............lower the price of F-in gas!

5/6/2006 12:02:47 PM

Quote :

"i spent less than $1000 on gas in the past 365 days."

i hit the $1000 mark in the last 5 weeks, 2001 chevy silverado gas obliterator, destroyer of all that is enviromentally friendly

5/6/2006 12:24:13 PM

when is the suv coming out

5/6/2006 1:54:02 PM

ok this is somewhat on topic i just want to get some clarification

in 11th grade(around 2001/2002) my us history ap teacher said that in the 1970s when we went through the gas shortage, that there were many patents on cars with 70+ mpg but that oil companies bought the patents off the people and basically trashed the idea so that oil would be in more demand

is that true?

5/6/2006 5:51:25 PM

Quote :

"GE's most advanced Combined Cycle Gas Turbine electric plant runs at over 60% thermal eff. Our lowest plant is at about 55%"

cars are around 20-30%

you're steam cycle may be that efficient but then i doubt your boiler is.

ohh and coal plants.... until they're phased out electricity = dirtier than most cars.
and there aren't nearly as many nuke plants as people think their are...there needs to be more

5/6/2006 10:01:03 PM

^^

patents are public record

patents from the 1970s are expired

kia isn't making a 70mpg car

5/6/2006 10:40:27 PM

i'm not sure if he said "patented" but he definitely said oil companies paid a lot of money to "buy" the inventors silence and design

either way it sounds like the teacher was mistaken

5/8/2006 11:54:42 AM

save 200$ in gas by raising your power bill 300$. Brilliant!

5/8/2006 12:07:43 PM