The goal of the VT program is to "develop more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies for highway transportation vehicles that will meet or exceed performance expectations and environmental requirements, and enable America to use significantly less petroleum and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
So, what is DOE looking for here? There are eight areas of interest:
Area #1 - Advanced Fuels & Lubricants Technologies
- Fuels & lubricants for advanced combustion regimes
- Direct petroleum displacement by liquid alternative fuels for compression-ignition
- Lubricant formulations to enhance engine efficiency
Area #2 - Lightweighting Materials
- Low-cost development of magnesium
- Development of low-cost carbon fiber
- Demonstration project to develop & construct a magnesium intensive vehicle front end
- Demonstration project to validate crash model for carbon fiber composites to enable production-feasible composites in primary-structural automotive crash & energy
Area #3 - Demonstration Project for a Multi-Material Light-Weight Prototype Vehicle as Part of the Clean Energy Dialogue with Canada
Area #4 - Develop Advanced Cells & Design Technology for Electric Drive Batteries
- Develop advanced cells for electric drive vehicle batteries
- Develop cells and/or battery packs with significant cost improvement
- Improve cell and/or battery pack inactive component designs for significant cost improvement
- Improve cell and/or battery pack thermal management approaches
Area #5 - Advanced Power Electronics & Electric Motors
- Modular, scalable inverter for advanced electric drive vehicle
- Motors with reduced or eliminated use of rare earth permanent magnets for advanced EDV electric traction drives
Area #6 - Thermoelectrics & Enabling Engine Technologies
- Solid state thermoelectric energy conversion devices
- Enabling technologies for engine & power train systems
Area #7 - Fleet Efficiency
- Fuel efficient tires
- Driver feedback technology
Area #8 - Advanced Vehicle Testing & Evaluation
That's a lot of info, so congratulations if you read all the way to the end! Looks like there's a cost share of anywhere between 20% and 50%, depending on the area of interest, and award amounts vary between $1.5 million and $50 million.
Check out FedConnect under DE-FOA-0000239 for additional info.
