Rethinking the Car of the Future

On September 29, 1993, President Clinton and the chief executive officer of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors (the "Big Three") announced the creation of what was to become known as the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV). The primary goal of the partnership was to develop a vehicle that achieves up to three times the fuel economy of today’s cars--about 80 miles per gallon (mpg)--with no sacrifice in performance, size, cost, ermsslons, or safety The project would cost a billion dollars or more, split fifty-fifty between government and industry over a 10-year period. Engineers were to select the most promising technologms by 1997, create a concept prototype by 2000, and build a producnon prototype by 2004