Tribrids
What are they?
Tribrids represent the next step in the ongoing effort to create vehicles that are practical, highly fuel efficient and very environmentally friendly. Most generally, tribrids are “third generation” alternative power vehicles, falling in right behind the original battery powered electric vehicles and the far more recent hybrid (dual) powered variants. Specifically, tribrids are those multi-powered vehicles that are designed to capture, store and utilize freely available energy taken from the environments in which they operate.

How do they work?
Perhaps the easiest way to understand and appreciate a tribrid vehicle is by way of comparing and contrasting its immediate and better-known predecessor, the hybrid.
Hybrids carry two sources of on-board energy. The primary energy source is most often some sort of liquid fuel (e.g., gasoline) that will in time be converted into mechanical power via an engine of some sort. This mechanical power will then be harnessed, via a “drive train” (transmission, drive shaft and/or differential) that ultimately serves to turn the wheels and thus move the vehicle - even if somewhat inefficiently.
The second source of energy on board a typical hybrid is electricity. This electricity is manufactured on-board, most often via the turning of a mechanical generator. The resultant electrical energy is then stored in batteries where it resides until supplied to an electric motor. The electric motor is used periodically to assist the gasoline engine under certain heavy-load conditions. Generally speaking the electric motor kicks in when the vehicle is starting up from a dead stop or when it is climbing up a hill.
Tribrids work in much the same way as hybrids, except that some form of the stored or generated energy either has been, or is being taken, from the ambient environment. A free-energy capturing device such as a solar panel, windmill or sail provides the tribrid vehicle with a source of power that, if left un-captured, is otherwise simply lost to the atmosphere.

Where can I get one?
Okay, first, the bad news: At the present time there are no commercially available tribrid vehicles. Now then, some good news: There are several recent and very encouraging examples of fixed-base recharging stations which do use free, captured energy as a means of fuelling certain types of alternative-power vehicles. For example, fixed-base solar panels are currently being used to help recharge certain battery-powered vehicles. Such stationary solar panels have also been successfully used to extract hydrogen from water, providing a cost-free source of fuel for pollution-free hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Based on these early successes it appears that manufacturers might well begin producing vehicles specifically designed to utilize at least the fixed-base recharging stations. Sometime later we will likely begin to see examples where the tribrid vehicle itself is equipped with some sort of portable on-board recharging station.
The idea of a portable, on-board recharging station has, in fact, already been successfully used on a boat and a plane. These early applications are perhaps unsurprising given that, in both the air and on the sea, the opportunity to capture environmental energy is great and the opportunity to stop and refuel is small. The tribrid boat carries some fossil fuel, but nonetheless relies heavily on both solar and wind energy to move it through the water. The tribrid plane does the boat one better and carries no fossil fuel. In addition to being totally solar powered during the day the tribrid plane uses otherwise excess electrical energy to extract hydrogen from water vapour. In the absence of ambient sunlight, as at night, the hydrogen is then be utilized by on-board fuel cells to create the electricity needed to keep the plane’s motors turning.
Taking it as a given, however, that your personal transportation needs relate primarily to land travel your choice among tribrid vehicles is currently limited to certain experimental models, including those you might try building yourself. The most popular concept thus far are the stationary solar recharging stations being used to “refuel” either otherwise standard battery-powered electric vehicles or hybrid electrics that have been fitted with extra batteries. Other than those vehicles mentioned previously that are
not designed to operate on land, we have seen no practical examples of vehicles utilizing on-board recharging stations. As close as we come presently to on-board recharging stations are some experimental solar-powered racecars that are equipped with short-term battery-powered back-up systems.
Assuming you choose to go the fixed-base solar panel route in combination with a modified hybrid vehicle you could leave your office at the end of the day to find your tribrid sitting in the shade of a solar panel, coolly recharging its batteries. This is certainly preferable to climbing inside a red-hot standard hybrid with minimal on-board electrical reserves.
Assuming plentiful batteries, a full charge and a short commute it is entirely possible that your tribrid might be able to avoid running the generator while underway. In the best possible case you may be able to also avoid running your tribrid’s fossil fuel engine as well, relying purely on those plentiful, solar-charged batteries to satisfy your vehicle’s short-term power requirements. Imagine that!