The 2012 Department of Energy budget submitted to Congress on Monday includes a 20-page section on Vehicle Technologies (VT), and nearly every word of it refers to vehicle electrification. In language of funding dollars, the VT budget jumps by 80 percent from $325 million to $588 million.
The 2012 Department of Energy budget submitted to Congress on Monday includes a 20-page section on Vehicle Technologies (VT), and nearly every word of it refers to vehicle electrification. In language of funding dollars, the VT budget jumps by 80 percent from $325 million to $588 million.
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The majority ($229 million) of the VT budget increase goes towards the expansion of the EV deployment and infrastructure rollout. This is a $200 increase in the program that will largely benefit the Clean Cities program where metropolitan areas provide grants for purchasing of EVs and charging equipment.
This is welcome news for EV charging equipment (EVCE) companies who are likely to see increased orders for 2011-12 by local transit agencies and fleets. Pike Research projects that $61 million will be spent across the U.S. on EVCE during 2011.
The other significant area of increased VT funding is in energy storage technology, which doubles from 2010 spending to $188 million. The cost of lithium ion batteries for PEVs is slowly coming down, but the government wants to accelerate the cost-reducing technologies through more material science research and manufacturing funding.
Article continues: http://www.matternetwork.com/2011/2/doe-transportation-budget-all-about.cfm
