AFS Trinity

AFS Trinity was formed on December 5, 2000, through the combination of two predecessor companies, American Flywheel Systems, Inc. (AFS), incorporated in 1991, and Trinity Flywheel Power (Trinity) which was incorporated in 1993. Since 1991, AFS Trinity has conducted programs with private and government organizations including DARPA, NASA, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. DOT, California Energy Commission, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Honeywell, Lockheed, and Ricardo plc.

On January 24, 2006, AFS Trinity and Ricardo signed a Technology Partnership Agreement for Ricardo to help integrate AFS Trinity's Extreme Hybrid drive train technology into passenger cars and SUVs. On January 27, 2008, the company unveiled two modified Saturn Vue SUVs (called XH-150 SUV) at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

On January 26, 2010, AFS Trinity demonstrated its prototypes for Delaware officials including Governor Jack Markell, suggesting that Delaware's idled factories and workforce could potentially mass-produce the vehicle.

The powertrain using two forms of energy storage is disclosed in US patent application 11/519,350.

The application describes a family of architectures where a battery is used in conjunction with a second energy storage device which may be an ultracapacitor, a flywheel, or a second battery. The purpose of the second energy storage device is to protect the battery from high current during high power operation.