Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technologies to coordinate federal R&D in these technologies, and
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ARPA in June 1994 to lay out common interests
and objectives and to minimize duplication.^7
Finally, there has been little attempt to link R&D goals for advanced automotive technologies
to specific national goals for imported oil reduction and emissions reduction from the
transportation sector. DOE has proposed no specific overall goals or timetables for technology
development in this areas In the absence of a coherent strategic plan by the administration,
programs are driven by fragmentary congressional guidance contained in various pieces of
legislation over the past 20 years. As one example, the Energy Policy Act of 1992 established the
goal of displacing 10 percent of petroleum-based fbels with alternative fuels (ethanol, methanol,
propane, natural gas, electricity, hydrogen) by 2000 and 30 percent by 2010. These goals,
however, are not well integrated with the stated goals of current R&D initiatives such as PNGV,
which does not address alternative fuels.
Partnership for a New Generation of VehiclesThe centerpiece of the current federal effort in advanced automotive R&D is PNGV, (see Box
5-2). Initiated by the Clinton administration together with the Big Three automakers in September
1993, PNGV is conceived as a joint government-industry R&D program aimed at the following
three goals:
- reducing manufacturing production costs and product development times for all car and truck
production; - pursuing advances that increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions of conventional vehicles;
and - developing a manufacturable prototype vehicle in 10 years that gets
efficiency of today’s comparable vehicle, without sacrificing safety,
convenience.
up to three times the fuel
affordability, comfort, orGoal 3 is deliberately chosen to require technological breakthroughs in the vehicle power
source, drivetrain, and structural materials (see chapter 3 for a discussion of candidate
technologies). The PNGV timetable for Goal 3 is to select component technologies by 1997,
produce a concept vehicle by 2000, and have a manufacturable prototype by 2004.
PNGV is actually a “virtual” program, in the sense that it coordinates and refocuses the various
existing agency programs and resources toward the PNGV goals. NO “new” federal
appropriations per se are planned for PNGV although the underlying agency programs that
address PNGV goals may receive increases. PNGV has helped to bring greater coherence to the
federal advanced vehicle R&D effort, by bringing representatives of the various government