AFS Trinity is set to demonstrate 150 mpg SUVs today using a system that is optimized for 40-mile-range usage, tolerant of heavy-duty power cycling and, they claim, ready for mass production. Says company CEO Edward W. Furia:
“Each of the XH150S SUVs being driven in San Francisco today is a prototype of a mass-producible family-sized SUV that can go the first 40 miles each day on an overnight charge with terrific acceleration and up to a top speed of 90 miles per hour. For an average family traveling about 340 miles in a week of normal driving, their weekly gas consumption will drop to less than two gallons. For some families who travel less than 40 miles daily, a trip to the gas station could become a once every three months event.”
AFS says that the they can lengthen battery life to ten years/150,000 miles by using a dual storage system of lithium-ion batteries and ultracapacitors, controlled by a single Power and Control Electronics Module to control the dual storage system. The capacitors provide the power for sharp acceleration. A FAQ on their website notes that this hardware/software module “actively manages the state of charge, power and energy of the ultracaps and batteries. Think of this subsystem as a kind of Grand Central Station and Mission Control rolled into one. Virtually every movement of energy to or from every component in the system must first go through the Power and Control Electronics module, insuring optimum balance among all energy and power components.” The comany says its capacitors are compliant with RoHS, do not contain mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBDE or PBB.