With their immense potential for increasing the country's energy, economic, and environmental security, plug-in hybrid electric and all-electric vehicles (also known as plug-in electric vehicles, or PEVs) will play a key role in the country's transportation future. In fact, transitioning to electric drive vehicles (including hybrid-electric) could reduce U.S. foreign oil dependence by more than 80% and greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60%. The EV Everywhere Grand Challenge focuses on the U.S. becoming the first nation in the world to produce plug-in electric vehicles that are as affordable for the average American family as today's gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 10 years.
To learn more about electric vehicles, see our Plug-in Electric Vehicle Basics page. To help meet the EV Everywhere goals, the Vehicle Technologies Office supports efforts in a variety of areas:
- Research and Development conducted in partnership with industry, national laboratories, and universities focuses on reducing cost and improving the performance of vehicle components such as batteries, power electronics, and materials.
- Modeling, Testing, and Analysis activities provide software-based analytic simulation tools to model "virtual vehicles," as well as in-lab and on-the-road electric drive vehicle data.
- The Workplace Charging Challenge aims to achieve a tenfold increase in the number of U.S. employers offering workplace charging in the next five years. Find out about how your company can participate and use a variety of resources to install workplace charging.
- Community and Fleet Readiness activities connect local governments and private fleets with our nearly 100 Clean Cities coalitions around the country. We also offer case studies and handbooks on how to get your community ready for electric vehicles or adopt them in your fleet.
- Workforce Development activities help train college students and those in the workforce on development, maintenance, and emergency response for electric drive vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations.