Chicago, Illinois’ Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc. has created the world’s first Ford F-150 plug-in hybrid. HEVT took the wraps off the eco truck earlier this week in San Jose at the Plug-In 2008 Conference and Exposition.
Using a scaled down version of HEVT’s hybrid drivetrain for transit buses, the hybrid system boosts the F-150’s average fuel economy from about 16 mpg to a very impressive 41 mpg.
Perhaps even more intriguing is that the system is intended to be retrofitted to existing vehicles, making it possible for virtually any vehicle to be transformed into a hybrid. “One way to reduce fossil fuel use is to find ways to plug in some of the hundreds of millions of internal combustion engines already on the world’s roads,” said CalCars founder Felix Kramer. “The pioneering PHEV designs for trucks and buses from Dr. Ali Emadi [HEVT’s founder and president] and his team at HEVT are especially promising.”
HVET plans on launching a pilot fleet of the F-150s in the near future, but no word on how long until its technology will be available to the public. We suspect price is the biggest hurdle, especially since HVET says it is working on “pushing conversion costs down and lowering lifetime cost of ownership for converted vehicles.”
