WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th March, 2021) The US government is investing $18 million to finance four new university research projects to improve the efficiency of vehicles, the Department of Energy announced in a press release on Thursday.
"The US Department of Energy today announced $18 million in funding for four cutting-edge projects that will help passenger vehicles operate more efficiently, reduce energy consumption, and contribute to the Biden Administration's goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050," the release said.
The Energy Department explained the funding is part of Phase II of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy's (ARPA-E) Next-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated On-Road Vehicles program.
The first project is a University of California Berkeley effort to use Level 4 automation to generate additional efficiency benefits in electrified vehicles. In the second, Michigan Technical University will expand its set of test vehicles to find new opportunities for efficiency and range optimization, the release said.
In the third program, Ohio State University will integrate advanced system-level optimization and control technologies to improve energy efficiency by more than 30 percent and in the fourth, the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, will expand its predictive eco-routing, eco-driving and hybrid power control strategies, the release said.
