Leadership Lacking In U.S. Car Program

The National Research Council released a report last week on the U.S. DRIVE program, a partnership between private industry, nonprofit institutes, and government agencies to advance automobile technology. The report states that although the government-industry partnership’s technical teams are doing well, its executive committee leaves much to be desired when it comes to steering the program toward its goal of reducing petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. DRIVE’s leadership seems to lack an understanding of how each project interacts with the program’s overall mission, NRC says. The report warns that insufficient guidance from the executive committee may create conflicts among the technical teams and cause additional delays or problems within the program. NRC recommends that the leadership set targets for U.S. DRIVE and adopt portfolio-based R&D strategies. U.S. DRIVE was established in 2011 and supports R&D to accelerate the creation and adoption of cleaner, more efficient vehicles and infrastructure with the hope to eventually have the technologies compete with petroleum-powered vehicles. The Department of Energy oversees the program.