FACT SHEET ON PNGV

October 22, 1997

Announced at the White House on September 29, 1993 by President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and the CEOs of the domestic auto makers, the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) is a partnership between the U.S. Federal government (7 agencies and 20 federal laboratories) and Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors that aims to strengthen America's competitiveness by developing technologies for a new generation of vehicles. Its programs include research support for over 350 automotive suppliers, universities, and small businesses.

PNGV's long-term goal is to develop production prototypes of an attractive, affordable car that can meet all applicable environmental and safety times and achieve up to three times the fuel efficiency of a comparable automobile sold today. This would mean that a typical midsize car would be able to achieve 80 mpg. The partnership also aims to (i) improve automotive manufacturing, and (ii) introduce efficiency technologies into production vehicles as soon as they are economically justified.

There are numerous reasons for pursuing PNGV, including:

• Environmental: Automobiles are a major contributor to atmospheric carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Already, concentrations of carbon dioxide are 25 percent higher than pre-industrial levels and are expected to double within the next century. Since the number of registered vehicles in the United States is expected to climb from 194 million in 1993, to as many as 270 million in 2010, PNGV's success is critical to any program of controlling US and world greenhouse gas emissions. It will also result in low cost methods for controlling the emissions that contribute to urban air pollution.

• Reducing U.S. Dependence on Foreign Oil: The United States currently imports 50 percent of the oil we consume -- this share is expected to grow to more than 60 percent by 2010. Petroleum imports make up ten percent of our country's import inventory and account for a large chunk of the nation's trade deficit. This dependence on foreign oil makes the United States vulnerable.

PNGV Status Report: The industrial partners are now in the process of selecting technologies that will be included in concept vehicles that will be completed by the turn of the century. The federal agencies are working to revise their research priorities to support both technologies that can be incorporated in production prototypes for 2004 and that can be integrated into even more advanced vehicles that would be designed in later years.

The goal of the program, while extremely ambitious, still seems possible given the advances in key technology that have been achieved during the life of the program. These include advances in production of low-cost, light-weight materials for the vehicle body and frame; electrical control systems, batteries; and compact, inexpensive fuel cells -- including the new technology for using gasoline to power fuel cells announced yesterday; and, advanced internal combustion engines for use in hybrid vehicles.