A bill to provide for a program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial application in vehicle technologies at the Department of Energy.
Advanced Vehicle Technology Act of 2013 - Title I: Vehicle Research and Development - Directs the Secretary of Energy (DOE) to conduct a program of basic and applied research, development, demonstration, and commercial application activities on materials, technologies, and processes with the potential to substantially reduce or eliminate petroleum use by, and emissions from, the nation's passenger and commercial vehicles. Requires the program to include activities in the areas of:
Directs the Secretary to ensure that DOE continues to support research, development, engineering, demonstration, and commercial application activities and maintains competency in mid- to long-term transformational vehicle technologies with potential to achieve deep reductions in petroleum use and emissions, including activities in the areas of: (1) hydrogen vehicle technology; (2) multiple battery chemistries and novel energy storage devices; (3) communication, connectivity, and power flow amount vehicles, infrastructure, and the electrical grid; and (4) lightweight vehicles and materials.
Requires activities under this Act to be carried out in collaboration with automotive manufacturers, heavy commercial and transit vehicle manufacturers, qualified plug-in electric vehicle manufacturers, compressed natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas vehicle manufacturers, vehicle and engine equipment and component manufacturers, manufacturing equipment manufacturers, advanced vehicle service providers, fuel producers and energy suppliers, electric utilities, institutions of higher education, national laboratories, and independent research laboratories.
Requires the Secretary to:
Requires the Secretary, when awarding cost-shared grants under this program, to give priority to those technologies that: (1) provide the greatest aggregate fuel savings based on the reasonable projected sales volumes of the technology, and (2) provide the greatest increase in U.S. employment.
Requires the Secretary to conduct research, development, and demonstration activities on connectivity of vehicle and transportation systems, including technologies for: (1) onboard vehicle, engine, and component sensing and actuation; (2) vehicle-to-vehicle sensing and communication; and (3) vehicle-to-infrastructure sensing and communication.
Requires the Secretary to carry out a research, development, engineering, demonstration, and commercial application program of advanced vehicle manufacturing technologies and practices, including innovative processes to:
Requires the Secretary to report to Congress: (1) annually through 2017 on the technologies developed as a result of this Act, with emphasis on technologies that were successfully adopted for commercial applications and, if so, whether products relying on those technologies are manufactured in the United States; and (2) annually on activities undertaken, active industry participants, efforts to recruit new participants, progress of the program in meeting goals and timelines, and a strategic plan for funding of activities across agencies.
Title II: Medium and Heavy Duty Commercial and Transit Vehicles - Requires the Secretary, in partnership with relevant research and development programs in other federal agencies and appropriate industry stakeholders, to carry out cooperative research, development, demonstration, and commercial application activities on advanced technologies for medium- to heavy-duty commercial, recreational, vocational, and transit vehicles, including activities in the areas of:
Requires the Secretary to: (1) appoint a Director to coordinate such activities; and (2) report annually to Congress on activities, active industry participants, efforts to recruit new participants, progress of the program in meeting goals and timelines, and a strategic plan for funding of activities across agencies.
Requires the Secretary to: (1) conduct a competitive grant program to demonstrate the integration of multiple advanced technologies on Class 8 truck and trailer platforms with a goal of improving overall freight efficiency by 50%; (2) develop standard testing procedures and technologies for evaluating the performance of advanced heavy vehicle technologies under a range of representative duty cycles and operating conditions; (3) evaluate heavy vehicle performance using work performance-based metrics other than those based on miles per gallon; and (4) undertake a pilot program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial applications of technologies to improve total machine or system efficiency for nonroad mobile equipment and seek opportunities to transfer relevant research findings and technologies between the nonroad and on-highway equipment and vehicle sectors.
Authorizes the Secretary to construct heavy duty truck and bus testing facilities.
Amends the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to repeal provisions that: (1) establish the joint flexible fuel/hybrid vehicle commercialization initiative; (2) require the Secretary to accelerate efforts for improving batteries and other rechargeable energy storage systems, power electronics, hybrid systems integration, and other technologies for use in hybrid vehicles; (3) establish the domestic manufacturing conversion grant program; and (4) establish a research, development, and demonstration program to determine the feasibility of using hydrogen propulsion in light-weight vehicles and the integration of the associated hydrogen production infrastructure using off-the-shelf components.
Amends the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to repeal the vehicle energy storage demonstration program.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy.
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
checking server…
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line