. Infrastructure. Advanced vehicles cannot operate in a vacuum; they require a supporting infrastructure
for refueling, servicing, recycling, and so forth, comparable to the existing conventional vehicle
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infrastructure. The infrastructure requirements of some advanced vehicles (e.g., battery electrics and fuel
cell vehicles) would be rather different; for others (e.g., gasoline ICE-powered hybrids) the
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infrastructure might look very similar to today’s.
U.S. experience with programs aimed at promoting the use of alternatively fueled vehicles has shown
that the lack of a convenient refueling infrastructure is a critical constraint. The infrastructure issue is
Certain to constrainadvanced vehicle development as well. Ultimately, the cost of developing a national
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infrastructure for advanced vehicles is the responsibility of fuel providers and the automakers.
Experience with advanced fuel vehicle programs, however, has shown that the government has an
important role to play in such areas as national standards development, federal fleet procurement,
coordinating with states and localities to ensure an adequate concentration of vehicles in a given area,
demonstration programs, and so forth.In the current budget, at most 1 percent of the hardware budget—perhaps a few million dollars-has
been set aside for infrastructure considerations. As the most promising technological configurations of
advanced vehicles become more evident, significant federal investments in supporting infrastructure are
likely to be required.. Standards. Today’s light-duty vehicle fleet is largely uniform in terms of the structural materials and
propulsion system technologies. With the prospect of a fleet of vehicles made of exotic structural
materials, mix-and-match power plants and operation algorithms, and alternative fuels and fueling
systems, manufacturers, consumers and regulators must each be assured of the safety, reliability, and
performance of these vehicles and subsystems.
Again, the primary responsibility for development of these standards will be private-sector organizations
such as the Society of Automotive Engineers. The government, however, must also be able to set such
standards as are necessary to fulfill its regulatory functions (examples include emissions testing
standards, fuel economy standards, and standard procedures for handling emergency situations).
Standards for safety and infrastructure have been mentioned above; an additional example would be the
difficulty of setting a single emissions test procedure for hybrid vehicles that may differ widely in
characteristics such as energy storage capacity, engine operating strategy, and so forth.. Life Cycle Materials Flows. Lightweight vehicles with advanced powertrains will utilize a very
different set of materials than do current autos. Because the auto industry is such a prodigious user of
materials, any significant change would have wide-ranging ramifications for the entire life cycle of
materials use, from extraction of raw materials to final disposal. For example, massive increases in the
use of lead acid batteries to power EVs could result in significantly increased toxic emissions from
battery recycling plants. While private industry must take steps to comply with the prevailing
environmental regulations, it would be prudent for government to anticipate major problems with these
changes in materials flows (e.g., supply disruptions, price impacts, hazardous waste streams, and
recyclability issues) and conduct an appropriate R&D program to address these issues.