Further incentives to develop clean vehicle technology could soon be on the horizon with the reintroduction of the Vehicle Innovation Act in the U.S. Senate.
The Vehicle Innovation Act is described as strengthening and streamlining the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office, which promotes public-private partnerships to conduct technology-neutral research and development on a diverse range of new technologies to improve fuel efficiency in light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The senators said the bill will grow the U.S. advanced manufacturing industry, support domestic research and development and reduce the rate of imported oil.
Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI), Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) announced the reintroduction of the bipartisan bill last week. It is similar to legislation the trio introduced in 2015, of which the House subsequently passed last May in the Energy Policy Modernization Act.
If passed, legislation would increase funding for R&D on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) communications, mild hybrid, engine down speeding, power pack modeling and testing, advanced boosting systems, new vehicle sensing and communication, hydrogen and natural gas refueling and electric vehicle charging technology.
It would also include $313.6 million in funding for FY2018 and a 4-percent increase each year after through 2022 “to ensure steady funding is available to help manufacturers keep pace with emerging advanced technologies that have the potential to reduce fuel costs in the national vehicle fleet,” stated Sen. Peter’s in an issued press release.
The bill so far is garnering support from Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, the Auto Allian, UAW, the BlueGreen Alliance and NTEA.
@SenStabenow @SenAlexander Proud to say MI & the U.S. are leading the way in development of automotive tech & Vehicle Innovation Act will help keep us on that path
— Senator Gary Peters (@SenGaryPeters) May 18, 2017
