Why the Prius will be obsolete in a couple of years

Right now the Toyota Prius is considered as the greenest family car, followed closely by the Honda Hybrid. They are both decent in terms of equipment and offer great fuel economy (practically about 55 mpg or 4.3 l/100 km) while you don't feel like you are compensating in terms of performance. While greener, fully electric cars exist (e.g. Reva ), these are rather limited in their autonomy, speed and comfort.

Yet, the Prius might be obsolete when ultracapacitor cars come into production. Yep, there is a new technology currently being developed which will make a car capable of returning 150 mpg (or approximately 1.6 l/100km)! Pretty neat ey? Ultracapacitors employ a technology in-between the normal capacitors (which charge fast but discharge quickly) and batteries (which charge slowly but discharge slowly) to achieve the above performances. In simple words, capacitors have the ability to give speed while batteries provide endurance.

The result is the XH-150: a three-way hybrid car with a petrol engine and conventional lithium-ion batteries as well as its ultracapacitors. Its manufacturer, TSF Trinity, says that the car can reach a maximum speed of 87 mph (140 km/h) and an overnight charge can give it an all-electric range of 40 miles (64 km). Pretty impressive with today's standards but will this technology prove viable? The manufacturer says that the ultracapacitor kit would cost $8700 per car which would significantly increase the price of a petrol car. Assuming an average price of $2.90 per gallon, with $8700 you could make about 105000 miles with a car which does 35 mpg. Considering that on average cars in the US travel 11870 miles per year, you'd need almost 9 years to get a return on your investment (assuming no increase in petrol prices).

Would it be worthwhile to buy a car employing this new technology? The manufacturer claims that the price premium pays back after 2.5-3.5 years (depending on petrol prices) which I personally find a bit too optimistic but you can check out their assumptions and calculations right here.

It was about time someone presented us with another option to the hybrids, but is it a viable one?