SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY

LENGTH: 1484 words

COMMITTEE: SENATE COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION

HEADLINE: FUEL ECONOMY STANDARDS

TESTIMONY-BY: DR. CLAUDE C. GRAVATT, JR., DIRECTOR

AFFILIATION: MANUFACTURING COMPETITIVENESS & PARTNERSHIP FOR A NEW GENERATION OF VEHICLES (PNGV)

BODY:
DECEMBER 6, 2001

STATEMENT OF DR. CLAUDE C. GRAVATT, JR.

DIRECTOR, MANUFACTURING COMPETITIVENESS & PARTNERSHIP

FOR A NEW GENERATION OF VEHICLES (PNGV)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON

COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE

Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I am Dr. Claude C. Gravatt, Jr., Director of Manufacturing Competitiveness and PNGV in the Technology Administration at the Department of Commerce. I wish to thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. My remarks will be focused solely on the Government and Industry's research investments in improving fuel economy under PNGV, and in no way suggests that the Department or the Administration have taken a position on CAFE or on the PNGV program. The Role of the PNGV Program in Developing Technologies to Improve Fuel Economy of Light Duty Vehicles

BACKGROUND:

The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) is a groundbreaking partnership between the Federal government and the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR)-whose members include DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and General Motors (GM)-to plan and manage research and development activities for a wide range of leading-edge technologies that have the potential to dramatically improve the fuel economy of, while also reducing the emissions from, cars and other light duty vehicles, including vans, SUVs and pick-up trucks.

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of the Under Secretary for Technology, leads the Federal government's participation in the partnership and also serves as the government secretariat. Federal agencies participating in the PNGV Program at the technical level include the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Transportation and Defense; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Science Foundation; and NASA. More than 20 Federal laboratories from these agencies are involved in the program. In addition to the Federal partners and USCAR, more than 350 automotive suppliers, universities, and small businesses have participated in PNGV.

PNGV is best known for its long term objective: developing the technologies required to enable the production of environmentally friendly cars with up to three times the fuel efficiency of cars in production at the start of the program (1994). This objective specifically would increase the fuel efficiency of mid-size family sedans from 27 mpg to 80 mpg. However, the technologies being developed by the program are not limited to application in just mid-size sedans, but instead are applicable across the entire range of light duty vehicles. This objective is expected to be accomplished without sacrificing affordability, performance, or safety. PNGV's other goals are: (1) to significantly improve national competitiveness in automotive manufacturing across all components, sub-systems and vehicle lines; and (2) to apply commercially viable innovations developed under the PNGV research effort to conventional vehicles as quickly as possible.

The level of effort among the participating agencies varies, based on the specific technical activities under active R&D at any point in time, and based on the missions and current core competences of the agency and its laboratories. In FY 2001, total government support for PNGV-related research is $234 million, of which $162 million is for R&D activities directly focused on PNGV goals and coordinated by the PNGV technical teams. Currently, the U.S. Department of Energy and EPA provide approximately one-half of direct Federal funding for PNGV, with DoE being the largest, and EPA second. The National Research Council estimated the industry's contribution to PNGV research and development to be $980 million in 1999, which includes major efforts on the part of the industry partners to develop the year 2000 concept cars.

STATUS: The initial PNGV R&D program consisted of an extremely wide range of technical areas which might be combined at the vehicle level to achieve the program goals. In 1997 the first major program milestone was achieved when these technical areas were reduced to focus on those that appeared to have the highest potential in terms of technical feasibility and affordability. In 2000 the program achieved its second major program milestone with the unveiling of the PNGV Concept cars. Although these cars all were based on the R&D activities of the program, each manufacturer selected from among them in ways which best met their corporate competitive strategy.

-The Daimler Chrysler concept car, the Dodge ESX3, was a diesel- electric hybrid with an estimated fuel economy of 72 mpg.

-The Ford Prodigy was a diesel-electric hybrid with fuel economy estimated at more than 70 Mpg.

-Two versions of the GM Precept were unveiled. The diesel- electric hybrid version of the Precept had a projected fuel economy of 80 mpg. GM estimated the fuel cell version of the Precept might achieve 108 mpg.

Many PNGV technologies-such as thermoplastics, lightweight aluminum, and composite materials-have already been used in production vehicles.

-Migration of PNGV technologies into production vehicles, such as production of a new, lighter, recyclable thermoplastic hardtop for the Jeep Wrangler in 2001, use of 412 pounds of lightweight aluminum in the 2000 Lincoln LS, saving 188 pounds, a new composite pickup truck box on the 2001 Chevrolet Silverado that is 50 pounds lighter than the traditional steel boxaluminum used for door, deck, and hood panels for Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet vehicles

-Development of near-production technologies

-complete demonstration of thin-slab continuous casting of aluminum,

-development of laser welding techniques.

-Progress in manufacturing processes, to include standardization, scrap recovery initiatives with the aluminum industry, and recycling and design of hybrid material bodies through development of more accurate software to predict springback behavior in large steel and aluminum stampings, die-recuts are reduced by 50 percent and cost of new die sets is reduced by 30 percent.

Examples of significant accomplishments in the area of science and technology are:

-Development of carbon foam with extremely high heat conductivity (2000 R&D 100 Award)

-Near frictionless carbon coating, many times slicker than Teflon (1998 R&D 100 Award)

-Oxygen-rich air supplier for clean diesel technology (1999 R&D 100 Award)

-Development of a compact microchannel fuel vaporizer to convert gasoline to hydrogen for fuel cells (1999 R&D 100 Award)

-Development of after treatment devices to remove nitrogen oxides from diesel exhaust with efficiencies greater than 90 percent, when used with diesel fuel containing 3 ppm of sulfur

-Improvement of the overall efficiency and power-to-weight ratios of power electronics to within 25 percent of targets, while reducing cost by 86 percent to $10/kW since 1995

-Reduction in cost of lightweight aluminum, magnesium, and glass- fiber-reinforced polymer components to less than 50 percent the cost of steel

-Reduction in the costs of fuel cells from $10,000/kW in 1994 to $300/kW in 2000

-Substantial weight reduction to within 5 to 10 percent of the vehicle weight reduction goal

Additionally, each of the USCAR partners has announced it will begin volume production of new generation hybrid-electric vehicles in 2003-2004 timeframe. Each of these products is in the light truck/sport utility vehicle segments where hybrid technology provides greater fuel saving opportunities.

Daimler Chrysler

-2003 Hybrid Dodge Durango

-2004 Hybrid Dodge Ram

Ford

-2003 Hybrid Escape

-2004 Ford Focus Fuel Cell Vehicle

General Motors

-2004 Hybrid Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra

-2004 ParadiGM Propulsion

The National Academies 7ch Annual Peer Review Report on the PNGV Research Program, administered by the National Research Council, was released in August 2001. This annual Peer Review process provides independent validation of the program's progress and success and has been very helpful in the past in focusing and streamlining the PNGV research portfolio. This year's review of the PNGV program identified several barriers to volume production of vehicles incorporating the full range of PNGV technologies, including: (1) the remaining high cost of PNGV technologies; (2) the uncertainty of meeting the more stringent Tier 2 emissions regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency last year, using advanced diesel engines as were included in the 2000 Concept Cars; and (3) the availability of advanced low-sulfur reformulated fuels. The PNGV participants are continuing to address each of these areas, and are optimistic that solutions will be developed.

Once again, I want to thank the Committee for the invitation to testify. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.



LOAD-DATE: December 11, 2001