5 Things You Need to Know About the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

What Was the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

The United States government and the domestic auto industry joined forces to establish cooperative leadership to produce fuel-efficient, environmentally sound vehicles in 1993. Involved parties were national laboratories, universities, suppliers, the United States Council for Automotive Research, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors.

What the Partnership For a New Generation of Vehicles Accomplished

The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles had a goal of creating vehicles that achieved up to 80 mpg in a number of ways. A variety of innovative approaches were followed including reducing vehicle weight, incorporating gasoline engines and electric motors that utilized regenerative braking, and improving drivetrain components. The end result was GM, Ford, and Chrysler did, in fact, create concept vehicles that got at least 72 mpg.

What the Partnership for a New of Generation Vehicles Brought To Light

Some of the developments that came from the partnership were the creation of a frictionless carbon coating that's slicker than Teflon; the realization that lightweight aluminum, magnesium, and glass-fiber-reinforced polymer components could be less than half the cost of steel; and vehicle weight reduction could be achieved to within 5 to 10 percent of the partnership's goal. The partnership was dissolved in 2001 at the request of automakers.

Cars Created As a Result of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

In 2000, GM created the low-emission vehicle concept car, the Precept, which achieved 80 mpg. Ford's Prodigy, a low emission concept car, was introduced in 2000 and got 72 mpg. Chrysler's ESX-3, which also got 72 mpg, was a mild hybrid concept introduced in 2003. All of these showed that super-high fuel economy could be achieved, although not at reasonable cost or necessarily in manufacturable ways.

Partnership For a New of Generation Vehicles Was Criticized

According to Ralph Nader, the Partnership for a New of Generation Vehicles was merely a way to transfer federally funded research and implementation into the hands of automakers. Some argued the group put undue emphasis on diesel solutions, which failed to address the issue of high pollutant emissions. Others cited the fact that the group failed to address concerns about the lack of safe and affordable power and its impact on renewable and nonrenewable energy. All of these criticisms, however, lose impact in light of the major strides forward that have now been made with clean diesel and renewable ethanol fuel.

Jennifer Olvera, a graduate of DePaul University in Chicago, has been writing professionally for over a decade. In addition to covering the "green scene" for publications such as Where Magazine and Crain's, she has become one of the preeminent dining, food, and entertainment writers in Chicago. She has regularly been published in Chicago Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Zagat, Citysearch.com, and Gayot.com.