An AFS Trinity Extreme Hybrid will be useful for 150,000 miles compared with 25,000 miles for a conventional plug in hybrid that uses lithium ion batteries alone.

The battery tests were conducted by America's leading independent battery testing laboratory, Mobile Power Solutions of Beaverton, Oregon, USA.

"For plug in hybrids," according to AFS Trinity CEO Edward W. Furia, "this means that the off the shelf lithium ion batteries in cars incorporating our patent pending dual energy storage technology will probably last for the entire life of the vehicle whereas the lithium batteries of conventional plug ins with battery-only technology will need to be replaced every 25,000 miles. A number of companies have announced plans to build plug in hybrids that can power a car for 40 miles in all-electric mode. Even if the batteries can deliver this much power, how viable are these plug ins if they are only good for 25,000 miles?"

David Shemmans, CEO of Ricardo, the world's leading automotive engineering firm and a preferred supplier to AFS Trinity, said, "Batteries are the single most expensive part of an electric vehicle or plug in hybrid EV. From a cost standpoint, replacing the batteries is analogous to replacing the engine in an internal combustion-only car. Replacing the battery after they are used for only 25,000 miles, which could occur in just over 18 months in an average American driver's car, would make plug ins impractical. A plug in hybrid with an energy storage system that can survive 150,000 miles of driving is an enormous advantage and a potential economic game changer."

"When a battery in a plug in hybrid is subjected to high current demands, which occurs every time the vehicle accelerates, either from a stop light or while merging from an on-ramp onto a freeway, resistive heating occurs in the battery. This resistive heating can easily become excessive with stop and go driving. Such excessive resistive heating damages a battery, and, in some cases can destroy it. In any event this phenomenon reduces the number of miles that can be driven during the life of the battery. In our system, however, the high current demand events are handled by the ultracapacitor, allowing the battery essentially to coast. Between such high current events, the battery trickled power into the ultracap, so that when the next acceleration occurs the ultracap is ready to handle it," Furia said.

Describing the prototypes, Furia said AFS Trinity's XH150 is not only a roomy SUV but "a fully operational Extreme Hybrid that can go at least 40 miles without burning a drop of gasoline in the electric vehicle mode with a top EV speed of 87 MPH...and from zero to 60 in 11.6 seconds in all electric mode and 6.9 seconds in full hybrid mode. After 40 miles as an electric vehicle the Extreme Hybrid automatically converts to gas."

www.afstrinity.com

www.ricardo.com