A new company has been established to build hybrid vehicles for fleet customers.

AFS Trinity Power and Ricardo created ‘Extreme Fleet’ to offer hybrid fleet vehicles that do not need any fuel on most days without sacrificing vehicle size or power.

Initially for the US market, the vehicles will be eventually available in the UK.

The company claims that many fleet operators could not only to save up to 75% of what they are now paying for petrol and diesel, but also to dramatically reduce fleet maintenance costs.

Trials of a SUV plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), which is capable of 40 miles on a single charge, 87 miles per hour in all-electric mode, unlimited range in mild hybrid mode, and faster acceleration than petrol-only versions of the same vehicle, have already begun in the US.

"There are hundreds of thousands of fleet vehicles that travel less than 40 miles a day," said Dave Shemmans, CEO of Ricardo.

"On these days, Extreme Hybrid versions of these fleet vehicles will use no gasoline or diesel at all. In situations or days when longer trips are required, they can automatically switch to conventional hybrid mode and travel any distance."

The company will focus on building special purpose vehicles using specially designed or existing car, truck and SUV platforms.

"Since unveiling the XH-150 (pictured) in January, a number of police departments, local government bodies, private fleet operators and federal agencies have approached us about applying our technology to solve their mounting gasoline cost problems," said Mr Shemmans.