The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles was a cooperative research program between the U.S. government and the three major domestic auto corporations, aimed at bringing extremely fuel-efficient, which comprises DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation. "Supercar" was the unofficial description for the R&D program. On track to achieving its objectives, the program was cancelled by the George W. Bush Administration in 2001 at the request of the automakers, with some of its aspects shifted to the much more distant FreedomCAR program.
Objectives
The main purpose of this program was to develop technologies to reduce the impact of cars and light trucks on the environment as well as decrease U.S. dependency on imported petroleum. It was to make working vehicles that can achieve up to triple the contemporary vehicle fuel efficiency as well as further minimizing emissions, but without sacrificing affordability, performance, or safety. The common term for these vehicles was "supercar" because of the technological advances. The goal of achieving the target with a family-sized sedan included using new fuel sources, powerplants, aerodynamics, and lightweight materials. The program was established in 1993 to support the domestic U.S. automakers develop prototypes of a safe, clean, affordable car the size of the Ford Taurus, but delivering three times the fuel efficiency.
Results
The PNGV program "overcame many challenges and has forged a useful and productive partnership of industry and government participants", "resulting in three concept cars that demonstrate the feasibility of a variety of new automotive technologies" with Diesel-electric transmission. The three domestic automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, developed fully operational concept cars. They were full sized, five-passenger family cars that achieved at least. General Motors developed the 80 mpg Precept, Ford designed the 72 mpg Prodigy, and Chrysler built the 72 mpg ESX-3. They featured aerodynamic, lightweight aluminum or thermoplastic construction and were hybrid powered using 3- or 4-cylinder diesel engines and NiMH/lithium batteries. Researchers for the PNGV identified a number of ways to reach 80 mpg including reducing vehicle weight, increasing engine efficiency, combining gasoline engines and electric motors in hybrid vehicles, implementing regenerative braking, and switching to high efficiency fuel cell powerplants. Specific new technology breakthroughs achieved under the program included:
Development of carbon foam with extremely high heat conductivity
Near frictionless carbon coating, many times slicker than Teflon
Oxygen-rich air supplier for clean diesel technology
Development of a compact microchannel fuel vaporizer to convert gasoline to hydrogen for fuel cells
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
Criticisms
called PNGV "an effort to coordinate the transfer of property rights for federally funded research and development to the automotive industry". The program was also criticized by some groups for a focus on diesel solutions, a fuel that is seen by some as having inherently high air pollutant emissions. Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer at The New Yorker, described that renewable energy is the main problem, and that "If someone, somewhere, comes up with a source of power that is safe, inexpensive, and for all intents and purposes inexhaustible, then we, the Chinese, the Indians, and everyone else on the planet can keep on truckin'. Barring that, the car of the future may turn out to be no car at all."
