USU awarded $3M grant to develop electric car technology

Published: Monday, Aug. 20 2012 2:40 p.m. MDT

Summary

Utah State University was awarded a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop technology for increasing battery life in electric vehicles, the university announced Monday.

LOGAN — Utah State University was awarded a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop technology for increasing battery life in electric vehicles, the university announced Monday.

The award is part of $43 million in funding awarded to organizations nationwide by the department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to develop breakthrough energy storage technologies, according to the DOE.

"To be among just 12 lead organizations selected for an award is a high honor," Regan Zane, a professor of computer and electrical engineering at the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative at USU, said in a prepared statement. "Through this three-year program, we'll develop cell-level power control architecture that improves electric vehicle battery performance and, as a result, could decrease battery pack costs by some 25 percent."

For the project, USU is partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, the University of Colorado and the Ford Motor Company.

— Benjamin Wood

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