SymPowerco Expands Hybrid Electric Prototype Project

SymPowerco Corporation, CEO John Davenport recently announced that the company has reentered discussions with an automotive laboratory for the joint design, construction and testing of Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) prototypes and Hybrid Power Systems. The prototypes will serve as test beds for the design of SymPowerco’s Hybrid Power Systems. SymPowerco plans to enter the Hybrid Power Systems markets with its unique Flowing Electrolyte Direct Methanol Fuel Cell.

SymPowerco has broadly expanded the objectives of the HEV Project to include feasibility studies for the early commercialization of multiple Hybrid Power System configurations. The project is expected to determine optimal battery requirements for the HEVs, to test multiple types of batteries, to confirm System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) specifications for SymPowerco’s Hybrid Power Systems, to determine the fuel cell power delivery requirements of the Hybrid Power Systems under various load conditions and to determine the design issues involving the retrofitting of existing plug-in electric vehicles with SymPowerco’s fuel cell and hybrid power technologies.

SymPowerco has identified extensive markets for Fuel Cell Hybrid Power Systems including golf carts, small industrial vehicles, three-wheeled taxis in the Far East (Tuk-Tuks), motorbikes and similar small vehicles. Many national and local governments in the Far East wish to replace millions of gas-powered motorbikes and taxis with electric vehicles that do not require plug-in rechargers.

It is anticipated that Hybrid Electric Vehicles will require as much as 70% less battery weight compared to plug-in electric vehicles. With batteries being constantly recharged by SymPowerco’s Flowing Electrolyte Direct Methanol Fuel Cell, a golf cart, for example, could weigh as much as 200 pounds less than a plug-in golf cart and would operate indefinitely by occasional refueling with methanol, an abundant and economical alcohol.

SymPowerco Corporation develops advanced fuel cell and power delivery systems for the rapidly growing personal transportation and portable power system markets that are being created by today’s energy and environmental challenges.