With the muffled roar of a jet engine, the test vehicle an Israeli start-up hopes will prove to be the future of the hybrid electric car is ignited.

An electric engine, containing a super capacity battery and a micro-jet turbine engine, powers this car from the rear as it drives almost silently around a test track.

With automakers racing to develop the most efficient, environmental friendly cars with minimal emissions, the concept of turbine-powered electric vehicles is not new.

But ETV Motors, a private company based just outside of Tel Aviv, says they have found a way to make it commercially viable.

The game-changing development is a higher density battery. It could power a car for more than twice as long, and with its on-board charger, will not be dependent on complicated electric charging infrastructure. Though the car will be plug-in compatible.

Toyota Motor Corp, another of the automaker giants developing hybrid and plug-in technologies, has said it will start leasing 500 plug-in cars globally by the end of this year.

But according to Arnold Roth from ETV Motors, their company's product has no competition in today's market.

[Arnold Roth, ETV Motors' Chief Operating Officer]
"ETV Motors is developing a power platform for a new generation of alternative fuel vehicles. We have a new electric chemistry that will be the basis for an exciting new generation of batteries, and we have a micro turbine developed against the background of an aviation heritage that will give the vehicles built on our platform tremendous advantages over everything else that we know about today.”

Citing reasons of secrecy, the company would not show its new technologies, which should be ready for tests in mid-2010. The car being shown, they say, is proof that the concept of their new components are viable.