Appendix E List of Recommendations
Chapter 2 Vehicle Subsystems
Recommendation. The 4SDI team should continue its program plan but should provide a more quantitative means of assessing progress and technical status relative to targets. In particular, the program should focus on exhaust-gas after-treatment and the development of performance or fuel specifications for a clean diesel fuel.
Recommendation. The 4SDI technical team should develop projections of the performance of compression-ignition direct-injection and gasoline direct-injection power-train systems, especially comparisons of the estimated emissions and fuel economy for each system. These projections would be a first step toward the quantification of trade-offs between emissions and fuel economy based on current and emerging state-of-the-art technologies.
Recommendation. Because one of the objectives of the PNGV program is to develop a vehicle that will be competitive in a global market and because fuel economy is a stronger market force in Europe and Asia than in the United States, the PNGV should continue development of the compression-ignition direct-injection engine.
Recommendation. PNGV should re-examine its fuels selection for fuel cells, taking into account the anticipated technical difficulties and cost implications of using gasoline as the onboard fuel.
Recommendation. PNGV should focus on improving stack performance without the use of a multi-atmosphere pressurization system.
Recommendation. PNGV should evaluate and compare reasonably optimized fuel-processor systems for different fuels to determine if the fuel-flexible or multifuel processing systems would be cost effective and would provide acceptable performance compared to systems optimized for a single fuel.
Recommendation. The PNGV should update its energy-storage requirements and goals by means of subsystem models integrated with overall system analysis. In addition to specific energy, test results should be reported for energy efficiency and specific power over well defined test protocols and compared to the refined performance goals.
Recommendation. The PNGV should decide whether safety issues with lithium ion batteries will preclude their introduction for energy storage in hybrid electric vehicles.
Recommendation. The PNGV should conduct life-cost and performance-cost trade-off studies, as well as materials and manufacturing cost analyses, to determine which battery technology has the best prospects and most attractive compromises for meeting capital and life-cycle cost targets.
Recommendation. Because limited progress is expected on the flywheel device, the PNGV considers it a post-2000 technology. Given that no money has been allocated for flywheel development in PNGV's fiscal year 1999 budget, the PNGV should follow through on monitoring developments in other flywheel programs.
Recommendation. The PNGV should review its power-electronics and motor cost targets for 2004 to determine if they are realistic based on known and projected technology. Because of the reliance of other vehicle systems on power electronics, the PNGV must have a high level of confidence that its cost projections can be met.
Recommendation. The PNGV should conduct a thorough analysis of the electrical-accessory loads to ensure that targets for supplies of electrical energy are consistent with system needs.
Recommendation. The committee continues to believe that fabricated aluminum sheet should be the primary candidate for the body-in-white and closure panels for the year-2000 concept vehicles. The development of the low-cost continuous-casting process of aluminum sheet should be given a high priority in terms of
resources and technical support. In addition, low-cost processes to overcome the cost penalty associated with the manufacturing and assembly of parts from aluminum sheet should be pursued.
Recommendation. The best long-term candidate—beyond year 2000—is the hybrid-material body-in-white, featuring thin carbon fiber-reinforced polymer sheet, sandwich panels, and aluminum front ends. The development program for low-cost carbon fiber should be continued for longer term applications beyond Goal 3. A low-cycle-time process and better recycling methods should also be pursued.
Recommendation. The PNGV materials technical team should endeavor to decrease the gap between the PNGV targets for weight savings and the actual identified weight savings for the power-train and chassis subsystems.
Chapter 3 Systems Analysis
Recommendation. PNGV management should take steps to ensure the effective use of systems analysis by all technical teams and to expedite the validation of the PNGV models. The USCAR partners, which are effectively using individual proprietary models to guide the designs of their concept vehicles, should provide validation support to the PNGV models.
Recommendation. Without compromising proprietary considerations, the PNGV should conduct in-depth cost analyses and use the results to guide subsystem and vehicle-affordability studies.
Recommendation. The allocation of total vehicle cost among the various subsystems and components should be redone in light of development experience of the last five years to ensure that the cost targets, which have remained relatively static, are realistic.
Chapter 4 Crosscutting Issues
Recommendation. The PNGV and USCAR partners should continue to make vehicle crashworthiness a high priority as they move toward realization of the concept vehicles.
Recommendation. A comprehensive mechanism should be established to help define feasible, timely, compatible fuel and power-plant modifications to meet the PNGV goals. This mechanism will require extensive cooperation among automotive and fuels industry participants at all levels of responsibility, but also among technical and policy members of relevant government organizations.
Recommendation. The federal government agencies involved in the PNGV program should review how future emissions requirements (especially NOx and particulates), fuel economy, CO2 emissions, as well as fuel quality, will affect the choice of the CIDI engine as the most promising short-term combustion-engine technology; a program plan that responds to that assessment should be developed. The PNGV, especially the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, should work closely with the California Air Resources Board on these issues. Once the systems model has been validated, it would be an appropriate tool to use in quantifying the necessary trade-offs.
Recommendation. Future committee reviews should focus on the progress of manufacturing projects toward meeting the needs of the Goal 3 technical teams in development of component and subsystem technologies.
Recommendation. Future reviews of the PNGV program should not include evaluations of progress towards Goal 2. Instead, the three USCAR partners should make nonproprietary information available to the public.
Recommendation. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies should continue to focus its support on generic, precompetitive research and development that industry would not undertake on its own.
Recommendation. The criteria used by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Advanced Automotive Technologies to validate components and component systems should be established with the full cooperation and participation of industry.