Industry R&D.
In 1992, Volvo unveiled its Environmental Concept Car, which used a gas turbine with an
electric drivetrain. More recently, it has announced plans to market a hybrid electric vehicle in the
United States in 1997 or 1998. The hybrid will be based on its 850 sedan using a four-cylinder
gasoline engine, and will meet California ULEV requirements. The vehicle is expected to cost 30
percent more than a gasoline vehicle of comparable performance, have 25 percent better fuel
efficiency, and have a range of more than 160 miles.^34
Japan
Government-Funded Programs.
The major ongoing Japanese government/industry collaborative programs relevant to advanced
vehicle R&D are shown in table 5-4. Japan was the first country to pursue the development of
electric vehicles through a collaborative research program. MITI’s Agency for Industrial Science
and Technology launched a modest program with Japanese manufacturers to advance the state of
the art of EVs that ran from 1971 to 1977, with total finding of $19 million. The program did not
develop any successful vehicles, but did lead to improved EV components. A follow-on 10-year
program to promote EVs intended to have 250,000 on-road and off-road EVs in the fleet by
1986, but actually only 1,200 on-road and 10,000 off-road vehicles (mostly golf carts) were
produced in that year.
Under the recently launched New Sunshine Program, an umbrella for MITI’s ongoing energy
programs, are several R&D programs relevant to advanced vehicles. The “Eco-Station 2000”
program intends to convert 2,000 Japanese service stations (of a total 60,000 stations) into “Eco-
Stations” by the year 2000. Eco-Stations will provide motorists with access to a range of
alternative fuels including methanol and natural gas, as well as electric charging facilities. The
program is funded at a total of 3.66 billion yen FY 1993 to 1995), and there are currently several
Eco-Stations established in the Kanto, Chubu, and Kinki areas.
Another collaborative MITI program, the Dispersed-Type Battery Energy Storage Technology
program which runs from 1992 to 2001 with total finding of 14 billion yen, aims to develop
long-life lithium batteries for small-scale load-leveling systems for home use and high-energy
density lithium batteries for EVs
MITI’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization has supported
research on PEM fuel cells from 1992 to 1995, aimed at development of 1 kW modules. Funding
is reported at an annual average of 200 million yen. The program involved eight companies,
including Sanyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and Asahi Glass.
35
A follow-up program is now being
planned, with the goal of developing PEM stacks in the tens of kW range. Industry sources
interviewed by OTA stressed that, although the Japanese PEM program got a slow start, it is
