That’s what this inventor is claiming and it sounds awesome:

Edward Furia says the electric car technology his Bellevue-based firm, AFS Trinity Power Corp., has developed could end the United States’ dependence on oil.

AFS Trinity’s prototype sport utility vehicles can go 40 miles on a single charge from a standard electric outlet, at which point a gas-powered engine takes over. The SUVs reach top speeds of 90 mph on the highway — and accelerate without a hitch, as Furia demonstrated while speeding Monday on Westlake Avenue North.

Gov. Chris Gregoire will take one of the firm’s two working prototypes on a test drive Tuesday.

“They can go 40 miles for a dollar, for a dollar,” Furia shouted, referring to the cost of power.

There’s one problem though. The U.S. auto industry doesn’t seem to want this technology. Foreign auto makers are interested, but not here in the oil hungry U.S. of A.

“They have nibbled; they haven’t bitten,” he said. But he said foreign car makers have pursued the firm’s technology “aggressively.”

Still, he said, there is a “lot of institutional resistance” in the U.S.

That’s always been a problem here. The auto companies are tied at the hip with the oil companies, so getting fuel efficient cars is like pulling teeth. Perhaps Congress should take a look at this convenient partnership between big auto and big oil and find away to break that up.

(h/t Raw Story)