Government Continues to Support Hybrids

Over the past few weeks, the US government has gone out of its way to provide  a significant amount of funding for fuel efficiency, hybrid car and electric car technology.  The three programs are being funded at $538 million, a majority of which is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

DOE Invest $11 Million in Battery Development
The Dept of Energy (DOE) announced seven cost-shared research projects they would be funding to the tune of $11 million.  The projects will focus on improving material performance, developing manufacturing processes to increase performance, and decreasing the cost of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) batteries.

The projects being funded under this program are:

• A123Systems, Inc of Watertown, Massachusetts, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $1.1 million for a project to develop a high throughput electrode fabrication process for their lithium ion battery technology.
• Angstron Materials LLC of Dayton, Ohio, teamed with Applied Sciences Inc. of Cedarville, Ohio; K2 Energy Solutions of Henderson, Nevada; General Motors Corporation of Detroit, Michigan; and HST Auto of Escondido, California; has been selected for negotiation of a three-year award of up to $3.2 million with a DOE share of up to $1.6 million, project to develop hybrid nano carbon fiber/graphene platelet-based high-capacity anodes for lithium batteries.
• EnerDel Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $3.3 million for a project to develop a chemical shuttle agent that will eliminate the danger of overcharging lithium ion batteries developed for plug in hybrid electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and electric vehicles.
• MaxPower Inc. of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $500,000 for a project aimed at adapting MaxPower's present battery management systems (BMS) for lithium-ion batteries to recognize the imminent appearance of an internal short and to take action to operate the battery in a safe state.
• North Carolina State University of Raleigh, North Carolina, teamed with American Lithium Energy LLC of San Marcos, California, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $1.35 million for a project to develop high-energy composite nanofiber anodes for materials for lithium ion batteries.
• SION Power Corporation of Tucson, Arizona, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $800,000 for a project aimed at demonstrating the viability of their lithium sulfur (Li-S) rechargeable battery chemistry for electric drive vehicles.
• TIAX LLC of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $2.36 million for a project aimed at understanding and preventing internal short circuits in lithium ion cells. Results from the proposed program will help develop guidelines to enable development of technologies for safe battery packs, guidelines that will permit original equipment manufacturers to develop their own proprietary technologies for mitigating short-circuit induced safety incidents.

$240 Million for High-Efficiency Trucks and Passenger Vehicles
The DOE is funding (for $240 million) the development of high-efficiency trucks and passenger vehicles. $110 million will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $130 million from DOE annual appropriations.

The goal is three-fold: increase vehicle freight efficiency by 50% in Class 8 trucks and to improve fuel economy by 25% compared to today's typical vehicles and 40% in diesel-fueled vehicles.

Applications are due on September 9

GSA Orders 17,205 Fuel-Efficient Vehicles, Including 3,100 Hybrids
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) spent $287 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on purchasing 14,105 fuel efficient vehicles. Each of the new vehicles will replace one with lower fuel economy.

3,100 of the new vehicles will be hybrid sedans.  Chrysler, Ford and GM will all benefit from the purchase.

      2,933 Chrysler vehicles for $53 million;
      7,924 Ford vehicles for $129 million; and
      6,348 General Motors vehicles for $105 million.

By September 30, the GSA will spend another $15 million to order advanced technology buses and electric vehicles for use in the federal fleet.