FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies

Run by Michael Berube, it had long-term aims to develop "leap-frog" technologies to provide Americans with greater freedom of mobility and energy security, lower costs, and reduce environmental impacts.

To address the research and development needs of commercial vehicles, the goal of the partnership was for US trucks and buses to move safely and cost-effectively larger volumes of freight and greater numbers of passengers but emit little or no pollution, with a dramatic reduction in dependence on imported petroleum.

Also, DoE and China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) signed a five-year agreement in September 2007 to support the large-scale deployment of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles in both countries.

[4] With the hydrogen-focused FCVT, whose goal is decades away, the George W. Bush administration was criticized for ignoring any intermediate-term solutions, and of funding it largely with monies redirected from other renewable-energy and energy-efficiency programs.

[5] As Ashok Gupta, the lead energy economist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, put it, "The FreedomCAR is really about Bush's freedom to do nothing about cars today.