Transportation Deployment

Clean Cities and Communities

NREL is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Clean Cities and Communities and Communities partnership, providing hands-on problem-solving assistance, education and outreach materials, organizational capacity building, and an array of data analysis and tools for more than 75 DOE-designated coalitions nationwide.  

Clean Energy to Communities

NREL manages Clean Energy to Communities (C2C), a DOE program that connects local governments, tribes, electric utilities, and community-based organizations with experts at national laboratories to conduct customized, cutting-edge analysis to achieve clean energy systems reflective of local and regional priorities.

Clean Energy Planning and Economic Development

NREL provides technical expertise to DOE's Communities LEAP (Local Energy Action Program), bringing clean transportation visions to life for sustained community-wide economic and environmental benefits.

NREL leads technical assistance activities for a broad range of partners, including DOE, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

National Electric Vehicle Charging Network

NREL leads the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation technical assistance efforts to plan and implement a national network of electric vehicle chargers and zero-emission fueling infrastructure, as well as support the deployment of zero-emission transit and school buses.

NREL engineers, researchers, and project managers provide direct technical assistance to states, communities, Tribal Nations, school districts, transit agencies, and partner agencies. To further accelerate the deployment of zero-emission infrastructure, NREL identifies solutions and advancements for equity with the Joint Office United Support for Transportation Lab Consortium, community engagement, reliability with the National Charging Experience Consortium, cybersecurity, physical security, and electric vehicle supply equipment soft costs.

School and Transit Bus Fleets

NREL manages the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation's Clean Bus Planning Awards program, which reduces barriers to zero-emission bus deployment by providing school and transit bus fleets with free technical assistance to develop comprehensive and customized fleet electrification transition plans. NREL also manages the electric bus data logging project, which aims to better understand performance data of electric buses operating in real-world conditions. The project is funded by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.

Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles

NREL plays a critical role in helping stakeholders overcome obstacles to deploying alternative fuels and advanced vehicles and make informed choices to reduce their fuel consumption. These scope of these efforts is wide, including light-duty vehicles, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and off-road vehicles and a variety of fuel types.  For example, NREL provides technical assistance to DOE Clean Cities and Communities and Communities coalitions. NREL also leads the Electric Transit User Group to help understand technical assistance needs related to transit vehicle electrification.

Alternative Fuels and Technologies

DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center: Go-to resource for objective information about more than a dozen alternative fuels and technologies, as well as analysis tools, publications, transportation-related laws and incentives, and maps and data.

DOE Alternative Fueling Station Locator: Comprehensive database of alternative fueling stations in the United States and Canada and the definitive source for measuring the growth of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, including those that are federally funded.

Commercial Vehicles

FleetREDI: The world's only secure, public, and anonymized data analysis and insights interactive web platform for commercial vehicle decarbonization.

Fleet DNA: Data clearinghouse of commercial fleet vehicle operating data to help vehicle manufacturers and developers optimize vehicle designs and help fleet managers choose advanced technologies for their fleets.

Deployment Planning

EVI-X Modeling Suite: NREL's flagship suite of tools that inform the planning and development of large-scale electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployments—from the regional, state, and national levels to site and facility operations.

REopt: Renewable Energy Integration & Optimization: Web-based tool used in conjunction with electric vehicle charging system analyses.

Transportation Projects and Data Sets

DOE Livewire Data Platform: Collects, preserves, curates, and disseminates a catalog of transportation and mobility-related projects and data.

Transportation Secure Data Center: Provides free access to detailed transportation data from a variety of travel surveys and studies conducted across the nation.

State Fleets and Alternative Fuel Providers

The NREL-managed DOE State and Alternative Fuel Provider Fleet Program works with covered fleets to help them meet their Energy Policy Act requirements and reduce their petroleum consumption.