Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9309300105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The initiative envisions merging automakers' expertise with the muscle of government laboratories to create a new generation of autos that would triple gas mileage over the next decade.
It was unclear exactly how much federal money would be spent on the program, but it probably will be modest compared to the $11 billion a year the automakers now spend on all types of research and development.
A senior administration officials said no new funds would be sought from Congress. He said some of the "several hundred million dollars" that now goes into auto- and defense-related research will be shifted to the program.
Flanked by the leaders of the Big Three at the White House, Clinton compared the research partnership to the Apollo project that put man on the moon and said it will usher in "a new car-crazy chapter" in American history.
"We are going to try to launch a technological adventure as ambitious as any our nation has ever attempted," he said.
The product of six months of negotiations between the White House and automakers, the program also represents a key test for Clinton's emerging industrial policy that envisions using more federal research money and the government's scientific expertise to help develop the commercial technologies of the 21st century.
While welcoming the collaborative effort, the auto executives also expressed doubts about whether tripling auto fuel efficiency is possible.
"The partnership will push the theoretical limits of energy efficiency and there's no promise that the desired technology will be found," Ford Motor Co. Chairman Harold Poling said.
John F. Smith, chairman of General Motors Corp., said the envisioned fuel-efficiency gains would amount to "nothing less than a major, even radical breakthrough. We are proposing a whole new class of car."
Senior auto industry engineers said they foresaw no technology that would readily lead to the kind of gains suggested by Clinton and still keep cars at current size, safety levels and price.
"We don't even have a vision of what such a car would look like," said a senior Chrysler engineer, who asked not to be identified. But the engineers said they welcomed the research opportunity.
The automakers have made little improvements in overall fuel efficiency in eight years, with cars and trucks getting on average about 28 miles per gallon, although a small number of subcompact cars have achieved better than 40 mpg.
by CNB