biology

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles rather than just read about it. In short: The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles was a co-operative research program between the US government and the three major domestic auto corporations that was aimed at bringing extremely fuel-efficient (up to 80 mpg‑US (2.9 L/100 km; 96 mpg‑imp) vehicles to market by 2003. The partnership, formed in 1993, involved eight federal agencies, the national laboratories, universities, and the United States Council…

Key takeaways

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles was a co-operative research program between the US government and the three major domestic auto corporations that was aimed at bringing extremely fuel-efficient (up to 80 mpg‑US (2.9 L/100 km; 96 mpg‑imp) vehicles to market by 2003. The partnership, formed in 1993, involved eight federal agencies, the national laboratories, universities, and the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR), which comprises DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors Corporation. "Supercar" was the unofficial description for the research-and-development program. On track to achieving its objectives, the program was canceled by the George W. Bush administration in 2001 at the request of the automakers, with some of its aspects shifted to the much more distant FreedomCAR program.

Objectives The main purposes of the program were to develop technologies to reduce the impact of cars and light trucks on the environment and to decrease the US dependency on imported petroleum. The program was to make working vehicles achieving up to triple the contemporaryng fuel efficiency as and further minimizing emissions but without sacrificing affordability, performance, or safety. The common term for the vehicles was "supercar" because of the technological advances. The goal of achieving the 80 mpg‑US (2.9 L/100 km; 96 mpg‑imp) target with a family-sized sedan included using new fuel sources, powerplants, aerodynamics, and lightweight materials. The program was established in 1993 to support the domestic US automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) to develop prototype automobiles which would be safe, clean, and affordable; the target was a car the size of the Ford Taurus with triple its fuel efficiency.

Results The program "overcame many challenges and has forged a useful and productive partnership of industry and government participants" by "resulting in three concept cars that demonstrate the feasibility of a variety of new automotive technologies" with diesel-electric transmission. The three domestic automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) developed fully-operational concept cars. They were full-sized five-passenger family cars and achieved at least 72 mpg‑US (3.3 L/100 km; 86 mpg‑imp). General Motors developed the 80 mpg Precept, Ford designed the 72 mpg Prodigy, and Chrysler built the 72 mpg ESX-3. They featured aerodynamic lightweight aluminum or thermoplastic construction and used a hybrid vehicle drivetrain, pairing 3- or 4-cylinder diesel engines with electric motors drawing from NiMH or lithium ion batteries. Researchers for the PNGV identified a number of ways to reach 80 mpg, including reducing vehicle weight, increasing engine efficiency, combining gasoline engines and electric motors in hybrid vehicles, implementing regenerative braking, and switching to high-efficiency fuel cell powerplants. Specific new technology breakthroughs achieved under the program included the following:

Development of carbon foam with extremely high heat conductivity (2000 R&D 100 Award) Near frictionless carbon coating, many times slicker than Teflon (1998 R&D 100 Award) Oxygen-rich air supplier for clean diesel technology (1999 R&D 100 Award) Development of a compact microchannel fuel vaporizer to convert gasoline to hydrogen for fuel cells (1999 R&D 100 Award) Development of aftertreatment devices to remove nitrogen oxides from diesel exhaust with efficiencies greater than 90 percent when used with diesel fuel containing 3 ppm of sulfur Improvement of the overall efficiency and power-to-weight ratios of power electronics to within 25 percent of targets while reducing the cost by 86 percent to $10/kW since 1995 Reduction in cost of lightweight aluminum, magnesium, and glass-fiber-reinforced polymer components to less than 50% of the cost of steel Reduction in the cost of fuel cells from $10,000/kW in 1994 to $300/kW in 2000 Substantial weight reduction to within 5-10% of the vehicle weight reduction goal

Criticisms Ralph Nader called the program "an effort to coordinate the transfer of property rights for federally funded research and development to the automotive industry." The program was also criticized by some groups for a focus on diesel solutions; the fuel is seen by some as having inherently high air pollutant emissions. Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer at The New Yorker, described that renewable energy is the main problem: "If someone, somewhere, comes up with a source of power that is safe, inexpensive, and for all intents and purposes inexhaustible, then we, the Chinese, the Indians, and everyone else on the planet can keep on truckin'. Barring that, the car of the future may turn out to be no car at all."

Notes

External links Transportation Research Board; Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences (2001). Review of the Research Program of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles: Seventh Report. The National Academies Press. doi:10.17226/10180. ISBN 978-0-309-07603-6. Retrieved 17 January 2018. "Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles Organization (PNGV)". Al Gore 2008 Draft Campaign. 11 March 2007. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 17 January 2018. Sperling, Daniel (Spring 2002). "Updating Automotive Research". Issues in Science and Technology. 18 (3). Archived from the original on 23 May 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2018. "Supercar". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 17 January 2018. DOE vehicle technologies homepage USCAR Website

Illustrations

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles: The 80 mpg diesel-hybrid General Motors Precept — The 80 mpg diesel-hybrid General Motors Precept

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles: The 72 mpg diesel-hybrid Ford Prodigy — The 72 mpg diesel-hybrid Ford Prodigy

Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles: The 72 mpg diesel-hybrid Chrysler ESX-3 — The 72 mpg diesel-hybrid Chrysler ESX-3

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

In research: Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Air pollution, Diesel hybrid vehicles, Energy policy of the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles in simple terms?

Why does Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles.