150 MPG Hybrid SUV Company Claims it is Being Muzzled [View All]

[bananas]

Joe Romm reviewed this car earlier this year: link

http://gas2.org/2008/11/09/150-mpg-hybrid-suv-company-claims-it-is-being-muzzled/

“150 MPG” Hybrid SUV Company Claims it is Being “Muzzled”
Written by Nick Chambers
Published on November 9th, 2008 15 Commentsin Fuel economy, Plug-in hybrid EVs

Just weeks before the 2008 LA Auto Show, hybrid car and powertrain maker AFS Trinity is pulling out after saying that show management “muzzled” them by disallowing claims that their highly modified Saturn Vue plug-in hybrids can achieve 150 mpg.

In a statement, AFS Trinity said that “carmakers continue to seek tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, ostensibly to develop fuel-efficient vehicle technologies, but their conduct is evidence they are reluctant to embrace solutions they didn’t invent.”

<snip>

EPA has been struggling with how to rate the fuel economy of plug-in hybrids — the most recent being a spat between EPA and GM about how to rate the upcoming Chevy Volt. So, for the LA Auto Show management to claim that AFS Trinity is not using approved EPA methods to estimate fuel economy, they’re kind of off base, because even the EPA doesn’t really know how to rate fuel economy with some of the new alternative powered vehicles.

AFS Trinity says they will be exhibiting their extreme hybrids elsewhere in downtown LA during the auto show. I’ll be sure to go check their cars out while I’m down there to see what all the hoopla’s about.