Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles’ Fuel Economy Goal: Evaluation of Trade-Offs Along the Path

The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), a government and industry joint initiative, has established a goal of tripling the fuel economy of a midsize sedan. A series of modeling experiments was conducted to examine the relative effectiveness of various technical steps cumulatively accomplishing this goal. A composite 1995 midsize sedan was sequentially modified, resulting in 21 different vehicles, each with selectively singularly altered candidate technical modifications that are evaluated with respect to their effectiveness for increasing fuel economy. The candidate technical modifications included manual transmission; reduced acceleration requirement; reduced frontal area and coefficient of drag; low-resistance tires; lightweight material; fuel-efficient, turbocharged, direct-injection diesel engine; hybridizing to a parallel configuration; and lower grade-climbing requirements. The study design is discussed, and simulated fuel economy gain for each step is presented. The modeling exercise also estimated that it is possible to reach the triplefuel-economy goal with these modifications.