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Bright Automotive, which is a spin-off of think-tank Rocky Mountain Institute, will unveil its 100-mile-per-gallon car in May at the 24th Electric Vehicle Symposium in Stavanger, Norway, with a likely introduction to the U.S. market earlier than that.

The yet-to-be-named vehicle is being developed to make the most of the battery technology by using light materials, aerodynamic design and low-rolling resistance of tires, said John Waters, president and chief executive of Bright Automotive, in an interview. That will make for a cost-competitive hybrid car, he said.

“We’re optimizing around physics – to increase efficiency and use less battery,” said Waters. “It’s the only economically viable transportation vehicle in the world because it pays for itself.”

The cost and weight of the battery has been a major hurdle for developers of plug-in hybrids, with lithium-based technologies currently presenting the lightest option, although not the cheapest. Bright is evaluating the different chemistry combinations around lithium and is confident it can adopt the technology “on an economic basis” thanks to the experience and expertise of its developers’ team.

Waters, one of the company’s founders, is a pioneer in electric vehicles and invented the battery pack system for General Motors Corp.’s first electric vehicle, the EV1. He has worked on many transportation battery technologies – lead-acid, nickel metal hydrate and lithium-acid while in the private sector, and eventually joined the Rocky Mountain Institute, or RMI, which focuses on energy efficiency.

Bright Automotive was conceived at the institute, and its plug-in hybrid vehicle research was seeded by Alcoa Inc., Duke Energy Corp., Google.org, Johnson Controls Inc. and the Turner Foundation. In January 2008, the company was launched as a private entity with the backing of private investors and one institutional investor that Waters declined to disclose.

One of the private investors is Reuben Munger, Bright’s chairman and co-founder, who is also the managing partner of Vision Ridge Partners and a former managing director at The Baupost Group LLC, a $16 billion Boston-based hedge fund.

Waters said that the company expects to start producing its plug-in hybrid three years after it raises all the necessary funds, which should be in five to six months.

“We’ve invested and spent a year already [on the project], we have our prototypes available, our suppliers are online, but because of the economic crisis, the ramp-up to production has been postponed,” said Waters.

In testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming last month, Munger said that Bright Automotive “is on target to begin mass production of the vehicle in 2012 at an annual rate of 50,000 units.” Munger was defending the allocation of the $25 billion in government aid under the Energy Independent and Security Act of 2007 to companies involved in the development of fuel efficient next-generation vehicles.

Last week, another RMI alumnus joined Bright Automotive’s team. Michael Brylawski, who worked alongside Waters in the development of the vehicle, will join the company as vice president for corporate strategy.