AFS Trinity loves to boast about its Saturn Vue-based Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle. Since AFS Trinity launched last year it’s been making a lot of noise about this hybrid with claims of it being capable of 150mpg.

AFS Trinity applied for some of the Department of Energy’s $2.5 billion in loans back in January to put towards opening an auto plant that had been closed.

Now, more recently, AFS took their show on the road and showed off their Saturn Vue-based Plug-in Hybrid along with its 16 kWh lithium-ion battery packs and ultracapictorrs.

Accroding to the NY Times, AFS is seeking $40 million from the DOE – a sufficient sum for building 100 cars. From there they hope to springboard into a $200 million production of 1,000 more plug-in hybrids. The final stage of their plan sees a $1.3 billion investment into retooling an old GM plant to build hundreds of thousands more. If everything goes according to plan they expect to sell the Saturn Vue hybrids for just $8,000 more than the gas-powered version.

The AFS Trinity SUV Hybrid prototype XH-150 that was displayed at last year’s Detroit Auto Show has seen some recent improvements. This week AFS Trinity announced two new driving modes for the SUV Extreme Hybrid that will assist in getting the car closer to production.

The XH-150 SUV Extreme Hybrid boasts 150 mpg. Its two new modes now aim to improve fuel economy and performance further. The first mode is the usual all electric mode which will have a very respectable range of 40 miles. In this mode you’ll be able to go from 0 to 60 in 11.5 seconds and hit a maximum speed of 90 mph.

In the second mode the SUV automatically switches to the fuel-efficient mode with the engine kicking in when the battery has 20% of its charge remaining. In this mode the hybrid SUV goes from 0 to 60 in 6.9.

AFS Trinity is looking for a $25. billion piece of the $25 billion that the U.S. Department of Energy has allocated for environmental automobile retooling. They wish to use the funds to retool a traditional automotive plant to allow for production of their SUV Extreme Hybrid, producing 100,000 to 150,000 hybrid vehicles per year.