This is the second report of the National Research Council's Standing Committee to Review of the Research Program of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). The PNGV program is a cooperative research and development program between the federal government and the United States Council for Automitive Research (USCAR). One of the aims of the program, referred to as the PNGV Goal 3 objective, is to develop technologies for a new generation of vehicles that could achieve fuel economies up to three times those of comparable 1994 family sedans. At the same time, these vehicles should maintain performance, size, utility, and cost of ownership and operation and should meet or exceed federal safety and emission requirements. The intent of the program is to develop production prototype vehicles by 2004. The next major PNGV milestone, scheduled for 1997, is selection of the most promising technologies. The committee's major tasks were to examine ongoing research activities in the PNGV and to assess the relevance of that research and its management to the PNGV's goals and schedule.
Samenvatting