U.S. DRIVE

U.S. DRIVE stands for Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability. It is a non-binding and voluntary government-industry partnership focused on advanced automotive and related infrastructure technology research and development (R&D). Specifically, the Partnership is a forum for pre-competitive technical information exchange among partners to discuss R&D needs, develop joint goals and technology roadmaps, and evaluate R&D progress for a broad range of technical areas. By providing a framework for frequent and regular interaction among technical experts in a common area of expertise, the Partnership –

• Accelerates technical progress; peers in the technical community discuss pre-competitive, technology-specific R&D needs and challenges, identify possible solutions, and evaluate progress toward jointly-developed technical goals.
• Helps to avoid duplication of efforts and ensure that publicly-funded research delivers high-value results and overcomes high-risk barriers to technology commercialization.

Government-industry collaboration on automotive R&D through the Partnership has evolved over time. From the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles in the 1990s to the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership in the 2000s, and to U.S. DRIVE today, the Partnership continues to benefit from diverse perspectives and unequivocal technical expertise that enable it to remain at the forefront of the changing world of automotive and related infrastructure technology development.

For more about the Partnership's vision, mission, and scope, as well as information about its organizational structure and operating principles, please see the U.S. DRIVE Partnership Plan. For more about the partnerships' recent accomplishments, please see the 2012 Technical Accomplishments Report.

U.S. DRIVE Partners

• Automobile industry: U.S. Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR, the cooperative research organization for Chrysler Group, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors Company); Tesla Motors
• Electric utility industry: DTE Energy Company, Southern California Edison Company, Electric Power Research Institute
• Federal government: U.S. Department of Energy
• Fuels industry: BP America, Chevron Corporation, Phillips 66 Company, ExxonMobil Corporation, Shell Oil Products US

Technical Focus Areas

The Partnership focuses on the following technical areas:

• Advanced combustion and emission control
• Batteries/electrochemical energy storage
• Electric propulsion systems (e.g., power electronics, electric motors)
• Fuel cell power systems
• Lightweight materials
• Vehicle systems and analysis
• Vehicle-to-electricity grid interaction
• Fuel pathway integration
• On-board hydrogen storage
• Hydrogen production
• Hydrogen delivery
• Hydrogen codes and standards