The US Department of Energy (DOE) is to pledge US$22m to support the research, development, and demonstration of plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) and direct injection propane engine technologies. It will also invest in community-based projects to accelerate the adoption of light, medium and heavy duty vehicles that operate on fuels such as biodiesel, electricity, E85, hydrogen, natural gas and propane.
DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy seeks cost-shared projects across three areas of sustainable transportation technologies. A new plug-in electric drive vehicle program focuses on research, development and demonstration of medium and heavy-duty PEVs, from class 3 to 7, including vehicles that can use their onboard energy storage to provide power to electrical loads external to the vehicle. Meanwhile cost-shared projects will focus on R&D and demonstration of direct injection propane engines for on-highway vehicles that could result in substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Alternative fuel vehicle community partner projects will also investigate the fueling infrastructure needed to support alternative fuel vehicles and offer sharing of best practices and lessons learned in this area.
June 16, 2016