In the third AutoblogGreen Podcast (which you can listen to here), we heard from Tony Martindale about the Connaught Type D hybrid. You can read more on the Type D-H here and read what Martindale has to say below. Enjoy.

ABG: I'm here with Tony Martindale of Connaught Motor Company and we are going to talk a little bit about the Type D hybrid. We are here at the booth at the AFVI, alternative fuels and vehicle's conference and expo. I have noticed a lack of any sort of vehicle. There are lots of videos and lots of pictures but you were telling me there is a specific reason why you didn't bring the Type D over.

TM: Yeah. Sure. We are launching the vehicle in the U.K. market this year and we are currently laying down the production facility which means we will be getting cars to consumers in the U.K. around about November of this year. The reason why we haven't brought the car over to the U.S. is that we don't want to over egg the product to the U.S. market just yet. We want to make sure we get a real structured launch, a real structured grounding exercise in place and, you know, my biggest concern is that we need to make sure we look after our customers because we are very keen on making the sale of the vehicle and the experience of owning a Connaught is a very special – special one indeed. So, you know, if we brought a vehicle here – we already received something like six percent of our interest in the product from the U.S. already and if I went even further with that now, we would – it would almost become unmanageable just to sheer volume of all the requests.

ABG: But there is an idea that it would likely be available for sale here –

TM: Yes, very much so.

(continues after the break)

While the specs are a bit different from what was announced last November, the Connaught Type D V10 sports coupe with a hybrid gasoline/electric engine is still on the way. Connaught Motor Co. officially announced today that it will build "the world's first green, high performance hybrid sports coupe." Deliveries will start in early 2008.

So, what are the new specs? Last fall, the numbers stood at 35 mpg (US gallons) from a 48V electrical system and super capacitors with a 2.0L V10. This meant 162 hp and a 0-60 time of 6.5 seconds. The official numbers out today say the mpg has increased to 42 mpg and the 0-60 time has dropped to 6.2 seconds. The exact engine in the Type D hybrid was not described by Connaught. Top speed is 150 mph. Lightweight composites and carbon and aluminum panels keep the weight under 2,000 pounds.

We do know that the Type D, body and powertrain, is new from the ground up and will be built at a new plant in southwest Wales. Designing and building the Type D is/was a £12million ($25 million) investment.

A non-hybrid version, the Type D GT Syracuse, with a V10 two-liter supercharged 300hp engine, will also be offered. More details are available after the jump and at the Connaught website. Click on the image above or the thumbnails below to see a high-resolution (1,280 pixel wide) image gallery of the Type D hybrid. The images are downloadable for your personal use.

Update: Tony Martindale, Connaught's CEO, will be attending the AFVI conference next week. We'll try to corner him for an interview.



Related:

• Obscure British car-maker Connaught introduces hybrid sports coupe

[Source: International Business Wales]