Those crazy Welchmen. A development team at the University of Glamorgan have created a "tribrid" 16 passenger bus that will be pressed into duty as a short range student and faculty hauler. A tribrid, in case you're slow, is a vehicle that relies on a three part motive system. In this case we're looking at power from a combo of hydrogen fuel cell, an ultracapacitor, and a battery pack. While the fuel cell and battery pack are pretty conventional, the advantage of the ultracapacitor is what's interesting here.

Whereas batteries are a chemically based storage medium subject to longish charging times, ultracapacitors can charge and discharge much more expediently. So here you have the fuel cell acting as a power source, the ultracapacitor acting as an electric load manager, and the battery as the storage medium for overflow. All that high tech is good for a range of about 150 miles at a breathtaking 55 miles per hour. While we'll sit on out hands and wait for the beta model, but that's still impressive for a roadworthy vehicle, even if it costs $190,000. [Yahoo! Finance]

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