How did we jump from Hybrid SUV’s that get 30miles per gallon to hearing about one that gets 100 to 150? For the past month, a company near Seattle, Washington has been getting a lot of press about an extreme hybrid sport utility vehicle that can be driven 150 miles on just one gallon of gas.

 

Ed Furia is the founder and current CEO of AFS Trinity Power Corporation, a company that equipped a Saturn Vue Green Line with their fast energy battery. This vehicle can be driven 40 miles on battery power alone, and with an overnight charge using your standard 110 volt power plug this vehicle is ready for another 40 miles.

 

So how does AFS apply this technology to come up with 150 MPG? Furia starts by explaining that most Americans drive less than 40 miles per day, which was released by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2003. Furia uses the 40 miles per day number for six days per week and increases that to 100 miles per day one day each week. This totals to 340 miles per week. Using these numbers, his modified hybrid drives 280 of those miles without any gas. The remaining 60 miles are driven on about 2 gallons of gas, based on the average of 30 miles per gallon. And, while 340 miles on 2 gallons of gas would be 170 mpg, Furia believes 150 mpg is more reasonable.

 

The only bad news is that we cannot currently buy and vehicle with this type of technology. Furia hopes to license this system to an automaker that will mass produce it and have it available to the public in 2 or 3 years.