U.S. to fund plug-in hybrid car research

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday it will invest nearly $20 million for plug-in hybrid vehicle, or PHEV, research.

The announcement was made by Kevin Kolevar, the department's assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability. He said five projects were selected for awards under the department's collaboration with the United States Advanced Battery Consortium for $17.2 million in funding for PHEV battery development projects.

The government will also provide nearly $2 million to the University of Michigan to coordinate the study.

Kolevar said plug-in hybrid vehicles have the potential to displace a large amount of gasoline by delivering up to 40 miles of electric range without recharging -- a distance that would include most daily roundtrip commutes.

The five projects selected for negotiation of awards were designed by the 3M Corp. of St. Paul, Minn.; A123Systems of Watertown, Maine; Compact Power Inc. of Troy, Mich.; EnerDel Inc. of Indianapolis, and Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions of Milwaukee.

The Energy Department said its goal is to make PHEVs cost-competitive by 2014 and ready for commercialization by 2016.