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What in the world is a plugless plug-in? That's the question we were asking ourselves as we read over the press release pasted after the break. It seems that MIRA, a design, development & certification consultancy in the UK, has created three removable battery packs which fit in the trunk of a car and can be removed separately for recharging. This scheme has a few benefits, especially for those individuals who do not have access to an outlet where they park, as the batteries can be moved to a better location. Also, those batteries could be used in other applications, for instance as power when you're camping or for other outdoor applications like quads or electric bikes.

MIRA calls its system H4V, which stands for "Hybrid 4wd Vehicle," and it uses lithium ion phosphate batteries. The current test-bed is a Skoda Fabia, which normally returns 39 mpg in the combined cycle. After the H4V system was added, the vehicle was able to attain 64 mpg on the same driving loop, which represents a 61 percent improvement. Equally as important, tailpipe emissions were reportedly reduced 39 percent. MIRA projects a price of approximately £2000 for a retrofit H4V system.