By DAN CATCHPOLE ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SEATTLE -- Sitting at a red light, Ed Furia explained the attributes of his company's new "extreme hybrid" sport utility vehicle, the XH-150. The speedy vehicle can go 40 miles without using any gas.A blue Ford Ranger pickup truck pulled up beside the XH-150, whose side reads, "Fast Energy Storage. 150MPG.""That's pretty good mileage. You've got me beat," the pickup's driver said to Furia."By a long shot. What's your mileage?" Furia inquired."Eighteen," the man replied, and drove off.Furia is founder and CEO of AFS Trinity Power Corp., headquartered in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue. AFS Trinity says it has the only working plug-in hybrid vehicles with a 40-mile "all-electric" range.The car's claim of 150 miles per gallon was calculated using average American driving patterns according to the U.S. Department of Transportation and following the Environmental Protection Agency's combined urban/highway driving standards.The figure assumes roughly five days per week of 40-mile drives - using no gas - and a weekend day of driving 100 miles, using 2 gallons of gas.Around 80 percent of Americans drive less than than 40 miles a day, according to Furia, which he says means a person could actually drive the XH-150 for months without needing to fill up on gasoline.The company added its patented "fast energy" battery system to two showroom Saturn Vue Greenline hybrids to create the XH-150. Capable of going from 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds, the XH-150 is part muscle car, part green car.The XH-150 is three years and $150 million away being ready for production, Furia estimates. The company unveiled the car at Detroit auto shows in January, and wants to license the technology to a large car producer.The model XH-150s have been touring the country since January and dropped by Washington, D.C. for Earth Day.Gov. Chris Gregoire has accepted Furia's invitation to take a test drive in Seattle on Tuesday and several state legislators planned to join her. Gregoire mandated in 2007 that state agencies must purchase hybrid and other energy-efficient vehicles. Last year the state saved 96,000 gallons of gasoline as a result, according to Gregoire spokesman Aaron Toso.There are several operating options besides "all-electric." In "full gas-electric hybrid" mode, the car gets around 68 miles per gallon, according to Furia. In "mild hybrid" mode the car manages around 30 miles per gallon. "Mild hybrid" uses electricity to run the engine when the car is idling. "Full hybrid" actively uses electricity to generate power while driving, but requires the battery to be fully charged.Previous gas-electric hybrids and all-electric cars have been criticized for their lack of pickup. They are limited by their reliance on batteries, which work best when power is discharged at an even rate. Battery packs small enough to reasonably fit in a car typically can't generate the surge power needed to accelerate quickly, such as when merging onto a highway. Large battery packs capable of handling that kind of power demand are unwieldy.The XH-150 gets around the problem with ultracapacitors, which store energy for short bursts, such as going from 0-60 miles per hour. Cameras use them to power built-in flashes, Furia explained. After that energy is used, the battery recharges the ultracapacitors.On the car's dashboard are two gauges for the battery's and ultracapacitors' charge levels. Step on the accelerator and the ultracapacitor drops. It starts to recharge when the car stops speeding up.Batteries have held back hybrids, according to David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich."Good batteries mean good plug-in hybrids, and I think we're very close," Cole said. "By and large we're past the inventing stage. The key invention is in place."Lithium ion battery technology, such as that powering the XH-150, is technologically developed, and now must be refined for mass production, he said.Other companies are developing plug-in hybrids as well, but Furia said he's not concerned. General Motors and Toyota plan to launch plug-in hybrid vehicles by late 2010, and smaller manufacturers, such as Honda, are expected to follow, according to the Sacramento Bee."Our batteries are cheap. Our batteries are just off-the-shelf lithium ion batteries. GM is trying to come up with a new kind of battery that can both be a weightlifter and a long distance runner. They're looking for a battery that can handle high power and high energy. So far no such battery exists. Some people don't think it'll ever exist," Furia said."We've already developed all the technology. The next step is cost and volume. We have to be able to mass-produce them, which we don't know how to do," he said.He expects mass production would also lower the price. AFS Trinity says its battery system would add about $8,700 to a car's price. However, the car can be recharged overnight by plugging it into a wall socket for the cost of about $1, Furia said. The company estimates a consumer would make up the extra cost in three and a half years.Price is the largest drawback to plug-in hybrid vehicles, according to Andrew Burke, a researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California-Davis and one of the authors of a May 2008 paper comparing current battery technology for such cars."Any talk about cost is largely speculation," Burke said, but adds he believes the price will become marketable.Battery life is another problem that must be solved before mass production can happen, Burke said. Developers hope lithium ion batteries will last 10 years, but it is unclear if that will prove true in real world conditions.AFS Trinity has been testing battery life at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., and says its batteries will last at least 10 years.Still, "none of the batteries last as long in the real world as they do in the lab," Burke said.
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