Avera Motors reveals specs for high-efficiency prototype; diesel hybrid could get 90 mpg *UPDATE

Florida-based Avera Motors has begun to let down the veil of secrecy surrounding the company’s high-efficiency prototype. The start-up automaker has been developing this automobile for the past few years but, until recently, only a handful of rumors circulating around the interwebs gave us any idea of what to expect from Avera. In late October, we spoke with Avera Motors chief executive officer R.J. Scaringe – a 27-year-old, MIT-trained engineer – and discovered that the company’s first operational prototype – a rear-wheel-drive hatch powered by a direct-injection, turbocharged gasoline engine – was ready to roll.

And roll it did. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Avera Motors recently swung open the side door of its warehouse and a small hatchback drove out past 80-odd politicians, financiers, engineers, and space industry executives invited to the unveiling. The start-up automaker further revealed that the unnamed vehicle is expected to get at least 60 miles per gallon and could be launch-ready by 2012. But wait, that’s not all. Avera is planning to, at some later point, drop a diesel hybrid powertrain in this vehicle and fully expects that it will top
80
90 mpg. Here’s hoping that Avera’s dreams become a reality.

*UPDATE: The mileage estimate for Avera’s diesel hybrid powertrain has been corrected from an inaccurately reported number of 80 mpg to the automaker’s actual claimed figure of 90 mpg.

[Source: Orlando Sentinel]