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Drive Electric Ohio

The project expanded on Ohio's current plug-in electric vehicle readiness activities and produce a replicable deployment plan for plug-in electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, safety trainings, consumer education, marketing, and associated policy solutions.

Learn more about the Electric Vehicle Community Readiness.

Drive Electric Orlando

The Drive Electric Orlando project is a large-scale effort to address one of the core barriers to widespread plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) adoption: increasing consumer familiarity with the technology. Over the two-year project period, this project will allow thousands of visitors from across the United States to rent a PEV in Orlando. The project taps into the largest rental car market in the country by providing PEVs for a multi-day test drive. In addition to making the vehicles available, the project will use incentives such as equitable rental rates and theme park incentives to promote these rentals.

Learn more about the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Deployment Initiatives.

Drones, delivery robots, driverless cars, and intelligent curbs for increasing energy productivity of first- and last-mile goods movement

The objective of the project is to use empirical testing, life-cycle assessment, and systems analysis to research and demonstrate an energy productivity of goods delivery improvement with drones, delivery robots, and driverless cars of at least 20% compared to a baseline network. In addition, the research will develop proof-of-concept testing, model, and simulation for a smart curb space as an intelligently-managed urban delivery zone for improved energy productivity and sustainability, with a goal of demonstrating at least an additional 10% improvement in energy productivity.

Learn more about the 2018 Vehicle Technologies Program-Wide Research Projects.

Electric First/Last Mile On-Demand Shuttle Service for Rural Communities in Central Texas

The baseline for rural transportation in Bastrop, Texas, and in many other rural communities, is the limited availability of mobility services to connect rural residents and visitors to existing rural transit and destinations within their communities. Rural communities do not have the suite of mobility options typically found in urban areas, and this is an opportunity to tailor low-speed electric vehicle (LSEV)-based mobility as a service (MaaS) to provide an affordable, practical, efficient, zero-emission, and fun way to enhance access. LSEVs use a fraction of the energy of conventional vehicles yet are capable of providing the same level of service for the intended market and service area. LSEVs run on 72 V systems that can be charged with 110 V outlets. The objective of this project is to develop, demonstrate, and refine affordable, accessible, sustainable, and replicable mobility service-enabled electric vehicle shuttle service applications in rural central Texas, supported by data collection, analysis, sharing, and public dissemination of results.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2020 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.

Learn more about the 2019 Advanced Vehicle Technologies Research.

Electric Last Mile Project

Pecan Street Inc. is evaluating the use of a private fleet of low-speed, six-person, electric shuttles for first- and last-mile transit connections in three Austin, Texas neighborhoods. The project aims to demonstrate the value of public-private partnerships in rapidly and cost-effectively increasing the usage of public transportation.

As of 2019, the Electric Last Mile Project has successfully tested the use of electric shuttles for eight months, providing a total of 29,206 rides. During the test period Pecan Street Inc. used surveys, individual interviews, community charrettes, and hardware installed on the vehicles to collect data on consumer engagement, vehicle performance, traffic impacts, and pricing structures. This data has resulted in a categorization chart that can be used by communities interested in using autonomous shuttles and public-private partnerships for first and last-mile transit solutions. The project also created a telematics kit that monitors vehicle operations and occupancy, a mobile trip request app and website, and laid the groundwork for future implementation of an autonomous shuttle.

Learn more about the 2017 Community-Based Advanced Transportation Projects.

Electric Vehicle Market Stimulation in Divested Economies

This project supports electric vehicle (EV) purchases, charging station installations, and outreach efforts to notify communities of these resources. The funds will help small businesses and rural cities accelerate their transition to EVs in Missouri and Kansas. The project includes eight partner businesses and municipalities operating within Kansas and Missouri environmental justice areas, opportunity zones, and other underserved areas. The project includes deployment as well as an innovative 15% cost share "overmatch" from its eight core funding recipients, which is leveraged to implement a small grants program for underserved communities. These grant recipients will be able to define project features guiding local benefit like installing public EV charging stations in parking lots and curbsides near multifamily residential complexes and retail businesses. The small grants program will place EV charging stations within underserved or rural areas that feel the effects of environmental justice issues. Diesel emissions from heavy-duty vehicles and off-road machinery contribute to early deaths, asthma rates, and family illness, keeping people away from jobs and school. Those are just some of the health and social impacts from diesel fumes that affect the community members the Metropolitan Energy Center serves. The project launched in March 2022. To learn more about the project or available funding, contact Miriam Bouallegue.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2022 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.

Learn more about the 2021 Low Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projects.

Electric Vehicle Widescale Analysis for Tomorrow's Transportation Solutions (EV WATTS)

With the rapid increase in vehicle electrification, there is a need for up-to-date, publicly available national data on the usage of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), also referred to as charging stations. This data must be analyzed to understand end-user charging and driving patterns as well as vehicle and infrastructure performance to inform DOE's research planning. As part of this project, Energetics works with project partners to collect PEV and EVSE usage data from a wide range of fleet types and charging venues across the United States. The objectives of this project are to collect, validate, collate, analyze, summarize, and publicly release real-world use data and datasets from PEVs and EVSE to inform future research and deployment planning efforts. All datasets and reported results provide anonymize data to protect sensitive information.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2020 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.

Learn more about the 2019 Advanced Vehicle Technologies Research.

Electrify Heartland

This project developed phased EV infrastructure installation plans for the Kansas City metropolitan area and for smaller communities, including the travel corridors between them. It developed and implemented replicable actions for adoption by individual municipalities in the areas of planning, zoning, construction, permitting, and fleet policies.

Learn more about the Electric Vehicle Community Readiness.

Electrifying Terminal Trucks in Un-Incentivized Markets

The objectives of this project are to demonstrate the feasibility of electrification for freight yard and terminal fleets through pilot projects with three fleets and to generate outreach documents that can be used regionally and nationally to promote electrification in other terminal fleets. Through observation, interviews, and data capture, Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC) validates the speed with which fleets earn back the capital costs of replacing diesel terminal tractors with electric models, generates case studies that can be used throughout industrial markets in Clean Cities territories, and puts four Orange EV T-Series all-electric terminal trucks into permanent service within the regional territory. As part of this project, MEC is creating a deployment guide based on the real-world data and experiences of pilot fleets in Chicago and Kansas City so fleet operators across the country can make the move to clean, efficient freight handling.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2020 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.

Learn more about the 2019 Advanced Vehicle Technologies Research.

Energizing Oregon

The project developed a comprehensive strategic plug-in electric vehicle market and community plan to address next-generation deployment strategies. The plan served as a roadmap to achieve Oregon's goal of 30,000 PEVs by 2015.

Learn more about the Electric Vehicle Community Readiness.