Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles

The main purposes of the program were to develop technologies to reduce the impact of cars and light trucks on the environment and to decrease the US dependency on imported petroleum.

The program was to make working vehicles achieving up to triple the contemporaryng fuel efficiency as and further minimizing emissions but without sacrificing affordability, performance, or safety.

[2][4] The program "overcame many challenges and has forged a useful and productive partnership of industry and government participants"[5] by "resulting in three concept cars that demonstrate the feasibility of a variety of new automotive technologies" with diesel-electric transmission.

They featured aerodynamic lightweight aluminum or thermoplastic construction and used a hybrid vehicle drivetrain, pairing 3- or 4-cylinder diesel engines with electric motors drawing from NiMH or lithium ion batteries.

[10] Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer at The New Yorker, described that renewable energy is the main problem: "If someone, somewhere, comes up with a source of power that is safe, inexpensive, and for all intents and purposes inexhaustible, then we, the Chinese, the Indians, and everyone else on the planet can keep on truckin'.