National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Hybrid Electric & Fuel Cell Vehicles

Research and Development

An efficient transportation system is the backbone of the U.S. economy. But along with the many benefits of motorized transportation are significant problems, such as an increasing dependence on imported petroleum and air pollution. Solving these problems depends on effective public policy and on the innovative transportation technologies that are being developed at NREL.

NREL researchers delve continuously into the technological systems that make advanced vehicles possible. Their work has had a major influence in many technological areas, including advanced vehicle systems, fuels performance, and technology integration and utilization. The advanced transportation systems in today's hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), for example, stem in part from early research funded under NREL's HEV Program, which began in 1993. Much of that technology is expected to transfer into the world of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), which has become an area of intense focus at the lab in recent years.