An overview of the U.S. government program to evaluate alternative power plants to the conventional internal combustion engines for automobiles.

The purposes of this paper are (1) to explain the basis for the U.S. government program to evaluate alternative powerplants in the automotive application; (2) to describe the states of the program; and (3) to show how this program relates to other U.S. government-sponsored research programs that involve safety, emissions control and conservation of energy for automobiles.