DOE Awards $30 Million For Plug-In Hybrid Projects
By John O'Dell June 13, 2008
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
Talk about getting what you ask for!
A day after Ford executive Mark Fields urged the federal government to help U.S. automakers develop plug-in hybrid vehicles, the Department of Energy has announced $30 million in grants for plug-in hybrid projects headed by Ford, General Motors and General Electric Corp.
The three-year program is aimed at accelerating development of plug-ins capable of achieving at least 40 miles of all-electric travel without recharging. The projects all center on battery development.
The department said it hopes to make plug-ins "cost-competitive by 2014 and ready for commercialization by 2016."
Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Co. says it will introduce commercial plug-in hybrids in the U.S. in 2010, albeit only for business and government fleet use initially with no definite date for retail introduction of the cars.
The DOE grants are to cover half the projects' costs, with the project teams picking up the other half. While General Electric isn't an automaker, it was selected for a grant to support a joint program with Chrysler. The project is focused on developing a dual-battery energy storage system for plug-ins.
GM's project centers on (this is the federal government's description) "enhancement of lithium-ion battery packs, charging systems, powertrain development, vehicle integration, and vehicle validation."
That's the long way of saying the project is designed to advance development of plug-n hybrid systems with an emphasis on coming up with a battery that meets the requirmenrts for longevity, reliability, safety and energy storage that the auto industry reqwuires for what essentially is the principal fuel storage device for carsof the future.
The project calls for an undetermined number of plug-ins to be deployed in on-road tests in three U.S. regions (also unidentified) over a three-year period. In addition to GM, project members include the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the University of Michigan Transportation Research institute and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The Ford project, which is already underway, focuses on battery development as well (do you see a trend developing?), with plug-in hybrid test vehicles being deployed to test things out. Other team members are Southern California Edison Co., EPRI and battery developer Johnson Controls-Saft.
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