Video: Local company develops 150 mpg engine

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BELLEVUE, Wash. – With gas prices at their highest ever, Detroit automakers are being forced to consider new electric technology.

They may need to look no further than in King County, where a company has developed a plug-in Hybrid system it claims can deliver 150 miles per gallon.

"I think it's actually the future of our economy and our livelihood," said Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Bellevue-based AFS Trinity Corporation, which developed this technology in the XH-150, says it has solved the battery dilemma. Batteries don't last long when asked to provide sudden bursts of power, but this one uses a specially designed capacitor to store the battery power and pack the punch.

"So by doing that, you never put the battery under stress and that makes it last a long time," said AFS Trinity CEO Edward W. Furia.

It's a lot of technical stuff developed by the biggest gang of techno-geeks you can imagine.

"We got guys from Honeywell, from NASA, Martin Marietta, from Lockheed," said Furia.

The process was a hit before it was ever built. It makes sense to engineers on paper, and when the car's electric and combustible engines are combined, it takes off.

But for some reason the 40 mile battery, the 150 mile-per-gallon equivalent and the combined 370 horsepower just won't fly with Detroit. Furia says the U.S. automaker engineers like it, but the big brass is slow to accept it.

"They run companies that are like aircraft carriers and an aircraft carrier does not turn on a dime. It takes hours and it takes miles," said Furia.

"But the marketplace and the kind of exciting technology we're seeing in Bellevue is exactly what America needs," said Dino Rossi, Republican candidate for governor.

AFS Trinity says the high cost of gas and sagging auto sales may finally convince auto makers to start producing the plug-in hybrid.