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The Gas Technology Institute is collaborating with regional stakeholders to create an alternative fuel corridor along Interstate 94 from Port Huron, Michigan to Billings, Montana. The U.S. Fuels Across America’s Highways – Michigan to Montana (M2M) project will develop fueling infrastructure for electric, compressed natural gas (CNG), and propane vehicles, accelerate the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles, and establish community-based partnerships to support the corridor.

As of 2019, the M2M team has conducted a needs analysis to identify fueling gaps along the M2M corridor, coordinated with state officials to install Alternative Fuel Corridor signage in Michigan and Minnesota, and conducted outreach at two dozen events. The project has installed a combination of DC fast chargers and Level 2 chargers in Tomah, Wisconsin and Moorhead, MN; begun site planning for three publicly accessible CNG stations in Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois; and assisted CTS in adding 10 additional CNG trucks to their fleet. The project will result in a total of approximately 15 new fueling stations including electric, CNG, and propane stations and approximately 60 CNG long-haul trucks that will support stations along the corridor.

Rural communities are disproportionately impacted by current gaps in the transportation system, which limit access to opportunities such as health care, jobs, and social services. There is also a high concentration of poor, elderly, and zero-vehicle households in rural areas. The R.O.A.D.M.A.P. project aims to better understand how advanced vehicle technologies function in these rural settings and to enhance awareness of innovative solutions with the potential to fill transportation gaps sustainably. The objective of R.O.A.D.M.A.P. is to develop, demonstrate, and refine affordable, accessible, sustainable, and replicable mobility service-enabled electric vehicle shuttle service applications in rural Appalachian Ohio. The team analyzes data from several deployments of electric and automated vehicles across transit and private vehicle operations and develops insights that inform the team's Rural Mobility Action Plan. The project includes data collection and analysis to understand the energy efficiency and greenhouse gas impacts of the electric shuttle in providing rural transportation access.

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

Electric vehicles (EVs) are promising solutions for rural mobility due to lower fuel and maintenance costs. Rural areas and associated rural clusters in the United States are facing numerous challenges in adopting EVs and developing EV charging station networks due to low population density, lack of EV charging infrastructure, limited-to-no EV experience, and low consumer awareness. The objective of this project is to develop a rural EV testbed to demonstrate and evaluate the applications of EVs over a diverse range of activities, serving the rural and largely economically distressed Upper Cumberland region in Tennessee. This helps potential fleet owners and the public at large make informed decisions about EV adoption before making significant financial investments. This project serves as a proof-of-concept implementation to support knowledge gaining and transfer as well as outreach and education on EVs for rural applications. It also complements DOE's existing EV dataset with detailed EV operation and use data dedicated specifically to the challenges and needs associated with rural communities.

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

The objective of the EACH program is to educate multifamily (MF) housing stakeholders on the best practices of deploying electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure within a MF property-specific context, all while ensuring affordable access to charging for underserved communities. The project approach has three main elements that make it well designed to meet these objectives: (1) including multifamily housing (MFH) industry partners from the outset of the project and meeting MF stakeholders where they are; (2) centering equity by focusing efforts around addressing barriers to access for lower-income and historically underserved MFH residents; and (3) build a program that is financially sustainable to ensure the materials and website developed stay available to the MFH industry until they are no longer needed. The project goals include reaching 50,000 members of our key audience (including property management companies, homeowner’s associations, property developers, architects, property owners, public housing authorities, student housing stakeholders, parking management organizations, electric vehicle charging providers, transportation agencies, and electric utilities) via outreach strategies including conference attendance, webinars, virtual meetings with associations, social media, traditional advertising, and speaking engagements; securing 2,500 commitments from our key audience for EV charging infrastructure installation at their locations, at least 1,250 of which will be within Justice40 communities; and performing five speaking engagements at significant MFH industry conferences.

The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) is partnering with the Clean Cities Coalition Network and fleets in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina to support the integration of a variety of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and fueling infrastructure. CTE and its partners will offset the initial capital cost of AFVs and infrastructure, promote opportunities for collaboration and strategic partnerships among alternative fuel market players, and support the development of alternative fuel corridors.

As of 2019, CTE has incentivized the purchase or installation of approximately 194 alternative fuel vehicles for six public and private fleets. The vehicles are a mix of compressed natural gas (CNG), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and electric. CTE is currently evaluating initial key performance indicators related to operations and maintenance for these vehicles and will publish a report upon completion. Additionally, CTE identified gaps in EV, CNG, and LNG infrastructure along key highway corridors in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. This information will be used to determine locations of future alternative fueling infrastructure.

The objective of the Mid-Atlantic Electrification Partnership is to enable a regional ecosystem in Virginia (VA), District of Columbia (DC), Maryland (MD), and West Virginia (WV) allowing all sizes of electric vehicle (EV) use for fleets, Transportation Network Companies, and consumers. This ecosystem project connects the Capital Region's cities, employs multiple EV and infrastructure sub-projects, and includes multimodal hubs such as airports, seaports, mass transit hubs, and logistics centers while addressing equity issues of populations near these hubs and within cities and towns.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2021 Annual Report or the 2022 Annual Merit Review presentation and the 2023 Annual Merit Review presentation.

The objective of the South San Joaquin Valley Zero Emissions Vehicle Talent Pipeline project is to develop a workforce talent pipeline to support the installation, operations, and maintenance of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and emerging charging technologies including wireless inductive charging, and hydrogen fueling stations. The project will provide workers transitioning from oil-and-gas jobs and participants from traditionally under-represented and underserved/Justice 40 communities with training and pathways to union and well-paying jobs in clean transportation. In doing so, the project will aid the transition to a new clean energy transportation sector in the South San Joaquin Valley.

The City of Seattle is working with Atlas Public Policy to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in shared-mobility applications and subsequently establish best practices for use in all U.S. metro regions. The project will identify and test techniques for effective PEV deployment and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) installation for use by ride hail drivers and shared mobility companies. This project is partnering with four major US pilot markets: Denver, New York, Portland, and Seattle.

As of 2019, the City of Seattle and its project partners have created a strategic deployment plan, developed a geographic information system (GIS)-based prioritization model for EVSE site selection and compiled reports and tools into the EV Shared Mobility Playbook. The EV Shared Mobility Playbook includes the following tools: The EV Shared Mobility Analysis Tool, Seattle’s Dynamic Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Siting Model, and several dashboards developed in coordination with Atlas Public Policy . In 2020 the project will deploy additional EVSE, continue outreach, and evaluate the impacts of implementation strategies in different regions.

The objective of the Helping Rural Counties Transition to Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles project is to create models for effectively transferring advanced clean fuel and vehicle technologies to underserved county governments and rural communities and to share those models and lessons learned through a nationally distributed Replication Playbook. Rural county governments often lack the staff capacity to learn about new technologies, implement new training and maintenance systems, and educate their workforces. The lack of funding and financing options, combined with staff capacity to research and pursue existing incentives, can also be a significant barrier to exploring alternative fuels and advanced technology vehicles. Transportation Energy Partners is coordinating and supporting Clean Cities coalitions in eight states as they work with rural county leaders to overcome these and other barriers and find models that work for increasing adoption of cleaner fuels and vehicles.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2021 Annual Report or the 2022 Annual Merit Review presentation and the 2023 Annual Merit Review presentation.

Compared to conventional trucks, battery-electric trucks (eTrucks) have potential advantages in reducing fuel and maintenance costs as well as harmful and greenhouse gas emissions. The medium-duty (MD) truck market is a likely candidate for a significant and near-term adoption of eTrucks in daily, return-to-base, urban and regional trucking applications of fewer than 100 miles per day. However, many trucking fleets have very limited or no exposure to the new eTruck technology. The lack of eTruck experience and the concerns about eTrucks including range limits, charging infrastructure availability, maintenance, and cost, are considered the main barriers for the broader adoption by trucking fleets of MD eTrucks. The objective of this project is to demonstrate a MD eTruck technology fleet of three eTruck vehicles and supporting infrastructure in fleets that have little or no experience with these technologies. The MD eTruck demonstration testbed is used to evaluate the performance of MD electric trucks in various applications by a diverse group of trucking fleets. The project may help potential fleets gain necessary eTruck knowledge and experience to make informed decisions about MD eTruck adoption. The project collects eTruck fleet operational and use data to analyze the challenges and needs associated with the use of MD eTrucks in fleets across a broad range of geographical locations.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2021 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.