President Launches DOE's 'EV-Everywhere Challenge'

The Obama Administration launched a new program aimed at helping increase acceptance of EVs, such as the Chevy Volt shown with a replica lithium-ion battery.
Credit: GM Corp

President Obama on March 7 launched DOE's EV-Everywhere Challenge, allowing scientists, engineers, and businesses to collaborate to make electric vehicles (EV) more affordable than gasoline-powered vehicles in 10 years. The challenge is part of a strategy to help reduce dependence on foreign oil.

The DOE initiative, which will bring together DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Program, its Office of Science, and its Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy ARPA-E, will aim to make electric vehicles affordable. The team will target dramatic technological and cost improvements in batteries, electric motors, power electronics, lightweight structures, and fast-charging technology. The goal is to enable U.S. companies to be the first to produce a 5-passenger affordable EV with a payback time of fewer than 5 years.

The challenge will involve working with industry, universities, national laboratories, and government partners to set technical goals for cutting costs for the batteries and electric drivetrain systems, reducing the vehicle weights while maintaining safety, and increasing fast-charge rates. As part of the initiative, DOE will organize a series of EV-Everywhere Challenge workshops across the country over the next few months. And, DOE will announce over the next few months a series of additional "Grand Challenges," each focused on technical innovations and reductions in cost that will enable clean energy technologies to compete directly, without subsidies, with the energy technologies currently in wide use. See the DOE press release and the President's remarks.

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President Obama State of the Union address promotes clean energy

President Obama calls for clean energy tax credits and a clean energy standard January 24 in his annual State of the Union address.
IMG credit: Pete Souza, White House

President Obama calls for clean energy tax credits and a clean energy standard January 24 in his annual State of the Union address. Said: "I go not away from the promise of clean energy", the President surrounded the issue of international competition, pledging not to "cede the wind or solar or battery industry after China or Germany because we refuse to the same commitment here." He announced also on two initiatives promote the deployment of clean energy technologies.

"I am directing my Government permit the development of clean energy on enough public land to 3 million households, making", President Obama said. "And I am proud to announce that the Department of Defense, working with us which energy in history make the world of's largest consumer of energy, one of the greatest obligations to clean - with the Navy enough capacity by a quarter of a million makes buying apartments a year."

President Obama stresses also the need for more energy efficiency, waste of energy proposes incentives to may update their homes to manufacturers in their factories to eliminate, and the company cut its energy costs by $100 billion over the next ten years. The President referred in addition series tax incentives, the domestic manufacturing clean energy technologies, including an extension of the advanced energy manufacturing tax credit would help. Find data sheets to the President on the website of the White House and the White House proposals on energy and production under the president's State of the Union address.

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