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The Vehicle Technologies Program supports the development of technologies that will achieve transportation energy security through a U.S. highway vehicle fleet that consists of affordable, full-function cars and trucks that are free from petroleum dependence and harmful emissions, without sacrificing mobility, safety, and vehicle choice.
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NREL has a long history of involvement in the development of advanced transportation technologies. First for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), which are now well established in the automobile market, and more recently for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), which are envisioned as a major presence on U.S. highways in the future.
Vehicle Technologies Program
The lab supports the Vehicle Technologies Program, created by DOE to develop FCVs and a nationwide hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The architects of the program aim to enhance transportation energy security through affordable, full-function, domestically produced vehicles. All of that must come without sacrificing mobility, safety, or vehicle choice.
DOE, the U.S. Council for Automotive Research, and industry cooperate to advance the program. NREL supports the program through research in vehicle systems analysis and testing, advanced propulsion and vehicle efficiency improvements, energy storage technologies, advanced power electronics, advanced combustion engines, and fuels technology.
HEV Program
Much of what's already known about those technologies stems from earlier HEV research at NREL. The lab's first official HEV Program began in 1993. It was developed as a five-year cost-shared partnership between DOE and the Big Three domestic auto manufacturers: General Motors, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler (then Chrysler Corporation). Program participants aimed to design a production-feasible HEV propulsion system by 1998, first-generation prototypes by 2000, and market-ready HEVs by 2003.
Further objectives of the program were to develop production feasible HEVs with twice the fuel economy of comparable gasoline vehicles, with comparable performance, safety, and costs. As the program progressed, its goals began to merge with those of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). The President's budget proposal for FY 2003 directed that PNGV be transferred to DOE as the Vehicle Technologies Program (at the time known as the FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies Program), and refocused on long-term research and development in fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructures and technologies.
Research and development at NREL continues to support the DOE's intent to develop advanced technologies that are more energy efficient in the future. Current R&D will provide a technology base for the eventual commercialization of fuel cell vehicles.
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