Annual Technology Baseline Expands To Include Transportation Data
The First-Ever Transportation Annual Technology Baseline Consolidates U.S. Vehicle and Fuel Technologies Data for Current and Future Markets Through 2050
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, has released the first-ever Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB), providing detailed cost and performance data, estimates, and assumptions for current and future vehicle and fuel technologies in the United States.
For six years, the Electricity ATB has documented annual electricity-generation technology-specific data with original projections based on innovations—and this new addition expands the ATB’s focus to include vehicles and fuels. The added baseline data will support energy analysts in making projections that account for the rapid pace of transportation technology improvement and market advancement.
“This year’s addition of transportation data extends the ATB’s mission to serve as a one-stop shop for consistent, objective energy technology cost and performance data,” said Laura Vimmerstedt. “We hope this expansion will support more robust and comprehensive cross-sectoral analyses.”
The Transportation ATB—which is supported by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Strategic Priorities and Impact Analysis Team, Bioenergy Technologies Office, Vehicle Technologies Office, and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office—integrates data from various sources into a highly accessible format that provides a consistent set of key assumptions for transportation analysis.
The 2020 Transportation ATB provides interactive Tableau charts that allow users to explore data on a variety of current and future vehicle and fuel technologies. View this chart in full size on Tableau.
Data includes current and projected estimates through 2050 for fuel economy, vehicle cost, levelized cost of driving, and emissions for midsize light-duty passenger vehicle technologies, along with conventional and alternative fuels. This data is presented for individual powertrains, as well as compared across powertrains.
To conceptualize possible transportation futures, the Transportation ATB integrates the key assumptions and projected costs into vehicle scenarios for three trajectories of technology innovation—constant, mid, and advanced—through the year 2050.
Fuel development pathways for the lowest cost and emissions are also mapped out for each powertrain— gasoline, hybrid electric, diesel, compressed natural gas, plug-in hybrid electric, battery electric, and fuel cell electric.
Users can explore transportation data in the way that works for them. The Transportation ATB includes interactive charts for either a single year or a trajectory out to 2050, as well as downloadable detailed current and projected cost and performance data. The Transportation ATB Summary CSV files capture cost and generation capacity in a database-friendly format, and Tableau workbook files provide access to original visualizations.
Learn More at September 23 Webinar
More information about the 2020 Transportation Annual Technology Baseline will be presented in a free webinar at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (1–3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time) on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. Presenters will describe the analytical products in detail, share examples of how to use the data, and provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions. Register for the webinar.
Read more about NREL's energy analysis research.