Remembering Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV)
I was a full-time Alt Fuel technology consultant/researcher back in the 1990s. Among my fellow wizards, the PNGV was a big deal. We attended conferences every year or so and watched the Big 3, with federal funding, develop hybrid cars that could meet an 80 MPG target number. They were getting close. The Japanese firms were worried and started their own hybrid projects "just in case." And then the US project ended and the Big 3 put their hybrids under wraps and went about selling more SUVs. As I recall, the DOE even closed down the PNGV portion of their website, so all that data and knowledge was taken out of electronic circulation! I am still angry about that.
There is a story to be told here and the November 5 issue of the New Yorker tells it in "Running on Fumes," a book review by Elizabeth Kolbert. As this post is a review of a review, it would be improper to go into too many details but details there are in the review and the book written by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, authors of "Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future."
I was excited by those US PNGV hybrids and disappointed when they went nowhere. I wonder if any of that ~$7 billion taxpayer funded effort's technology went into the slowly arriving US hybrids now available. This was around the same time when GM was also trying and then killing the all electric EV1 car. For a few years, the new buzz was fuel cell vehicles and a new Big 3 project began. Now that that has cooled, GM is promising the Volt - a range extender hybrid based on lithium ion technology that wasn't feasible back in the 1990s.
I am glad Mssrs. Carson and Vaitheeswaren chose to write this book and that the New Yorker/Ms. Kolbert chose to review it. Detroit has to live with and learn from its decisions. So do the rest of us.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CJ 11:13AM (11/23/2007)
Wasn't the Dodge Intrepid ESX series of cars developed during this program? I believe the ESX-III could get 72mpg and still met all safety criteria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Intrepid_ESX
I don't know how accurate Wiki is, but they say Dodge is actually considering release next year or 2009. If that was the case, wouldn't it be appearing at all of the auto shows to boost their image? Or is it a sleeper, waiting for a sudden explosion into the market?
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Tim 11:28AM (11/23/2007)
Turn the light on, keep it on and keep it focused on the cockroaches. That way they won't come back.
So, can anyone tell me "what is is"?
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Dave 12:31PM (11/23/2007)
The Big 3 can probably build an 80 mpg family sedan.
They just can't build one for less than $50,000. Especially with mandated safety and emmissions standards.
At $30,000, the Volt is a better compromise. And they still will be a hard sell, because the Volt will provide weaker handling/braking/payload than its $15,000 platform mates, the Cobalt and Astra.
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jcwinnie 12:42PM (11/23/2007)
@Dave
Uh, no, when there was a Big Three, each showed that they could build a vehicle that delivered fuel economy of 80 mpg without increasing price or compromising performance and comfort. All were diesel-hybrids.
@Art
That was during the Clinton Administration, so, if we have another Clinton Administration does that mean that the automobile manufacturers get to avoid their follow through some more?
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Dave 12:54PM (11/23/2007)
LMAO
You mean the Big 3 told the people who were giving them funding that they could build a diesel/hybrid drivetrain for the same price as a gas drivetrain.
Do you see the problem here?
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rgseidl 1:09PM (11/23/2007)
Afaik, the PNGV effort died mostly because it was based on diesel engines that could no longer meet ever-tightening emissions standards. Remember, the program was funded by DOE, not EPA or CARB. The auto makers nixed it as soon as the Bush administration came to power. It wanted nothing to do with the Clinton-era initiative, instead launching its own FreedomCAR project. With an even more distant time horizon, this promised many more years of corporate welfare while proceeding with business as usual. Why conserve fuel when you can wage war over it?
Since the program was (mostly) taxpayer-funded, it should be possible to gain access to (most of) the PNGV research with a petition under the Freedom of Information Act. It might take until after Jan. 20, 2009 to actually receive any documents, though.
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GreyFlcn 9:46AM (11/24/2007)
Since then, diesel particulate filters, and NOx filters have cropped up.
And now Diesels can meet the toughest standards in the world (i.e. California, which is 3x more strict than Europe)
2008 will have light duty diesels sold in all 50 states.
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