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Back to: Rocky Mountain Institute--Home Page > Library   Transportation All files found here are available in downloadable PDF format. When you click on the publication title the PDF will automatically begin downloading. To read a PDF file you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer—it's available for free from Adobe Systems. Get Adobe Acrobat Reader   If you find these publications useful please consider making an online donation to Rocky Mountain Institute.   T07-01, Dust to Dust (PDF-170k) To check the results presented in "Dust to Dust," a life cycle analysis that claims to show that a Hummer has less environmental impact than a Prius, RMI manipulated Argonne National Labs automotive life cycle analysis model to incorporate some of Dust to Dust's stated assumptions. The model found that, even including known Dust to Dust assumptions, the Prius still has less environmental impact over it's lifetime (21 May 2007).   T05-13, Comments to NHTSA on Revised Light-Truck CAFE Standards (PDF-132k) On 23 August 2005, NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) proposed adopting RMI's recommendation of a size- rather than weight-based structure for future light-truck CAFE standards. This 22 November 2005 comment from the Institute applauds NHTSA for this proposal as well as suggests future opportunities for improvement. See also RMI Solutions, Fall 2005 article, A Small but Encouraging Step Toward Making Light Trucks. (22 November 2005).   T05-03, Legislative Options to Improve Transportation Efficiency (PDF-290k) This white paper provides state legislatures with options to improve vehicle transportation efficiency within the state. Vehicles account for the majority of oil use in the United States. Traditional policy prescriptions that rely on prices, taxes, or quotas are well known, but politically fraught, and have led to gridlock at the federal level. Many of the ideas outlined in this paper originate from RMI’s most recent study, Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security, www.oilendgame.org (22 April 2005).   T04-06, Comment on the American Physical Society Hydrogen Report (PDF-88k) The American Physical Society's (APS) echo of basic errors in National Academy of Sciences and other recent reports about the alleged obstacles to a hydrogen economy elicited a correction in the July 2004 Physics and Society from APS member Amory Lovins, focusing on hydrogen storage, cost, and transition strategy. Reprinted with permission from the American Physical Society. See: www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/2004/july/commentary.cfm#lovins (July 2004).   T04-01, Hypercars®, Hydrogen, and the Automotive Transition (PDF-920k) Lightweighting is the key to making vehicles superefficient but safe. In this invited technical review paper in the International Journal of Vehicle Design, RMI's CEO Amory Lovins and Hypercar, Inc.'s VP Engineering David Cramer explain why, using as an example Hypercar's 2000 virtual design of the Revolution 99-mpg SUV. The paper also shows how Hypercar's Fiberforge™ process promises to achieve that goal at competitive cost, and how this manufacturing breakthrough can accelerate an exciting new stage in automaking and the emergence of the hydrogen economy. Reprinted with permission from Inderscience Publishers—International Journal of Vehicle Design, Vol. 35, Nos 1/2, pp. 50–85 (23 March 2004).   T02-10, Design and Manufacture of an Affordable Advanced-Composite Automotive Body Structure (PDF-736k) Reducing vehicle weight is critical to improving fuel economy and addressing range, performance, size, and cost challenges associated with fuel-cell and hybrid propulsion systems. This paper describes the design, fabrication, and assembly approach used for the carbon-fiber composite body structure in Hypercar, Inc.'s Revolution concept vehicle (www.hypercar.com). Reprinted with permission from the Proceedings of The 19th International Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition (November 2002).   T02-06, FreedomCAR, Hypercar®, and Hydrogen (PDF-1.0 MB) Amory Lovins's testimony, leading an auto-industry panel, to the House Science Committee's Energy Subcommittee, on the Big Three automakers' and U.S. Department of Energy's FreedomCAR program. Notes that their 10–20 year development goal was already designed in 2000 by Hypercar, Inc., and suggests bolder program goals (June 2002).   T01-22, Next Exit: Safe, Fuel-Efficient Cars (PDF-44k) New technology is currently available and affordable for manufacturers to begin producing cars that incorporate the best of safety and fuel efficiency. This article, by Jason Denner and Peter Light, which first appeared in The Washington Post, discusses how such cars can be designed and why they aren't on the market yet (21 August 2001).   T01-13, Dream Machine: One Quest to Build A Truly 'Clean' Car Has Gathered Steam (PDF-48k) From his solar-powered digs, Amory Lovins is gearing up to take on the giants of the global auto industry. This article, by Jeffery Ball, staff reporter of The Wall Street Journal, discusses Mr. Lovins dream to create an earth-friendly SUV (January 2001).   T00-26, Hypercars®: Uncompromised Vehicles, Disruptive Technologies, and the Rapid Transition to Hydrogen (PDF-1.0 MB) This PowerPoint presentation to a senior executive conference on the future of the global car industry summarized the nature, status, and prospects of Hypercar® development, including how they accelerate the shift to a hydrogen economy (16 June 2000).   T99-10, Uncommon Knowledge: Automotive Platform Sharing's Potential Impact on Advanced Technologies (PDF-278k) Automakers are embracing with vigor the strategy of dedicated platform sharing, which portions common design, engineering, and production efforts over a number of outwardly distinct models. Platform sharing mixes lower-volume "differentiating" technologies to increase market attractiveness with higher-volume "standardized" technologies to lower overall costs. "Disruptive" advanced technologies like polymer composites and the Hypercar® concept, ill-suited to conventional, mass-production automaking, may fit very well within the new rules of platforms (1999).   T99-07, A Strategy for the Hydrogen Transition (PDF-144k) This paper illustrates how the careful coordination of fuel-cell commercialization in stationary and transportation applications, the use of small-scale, distributed fueling appliances, and Hypercar® vehicles combine to offer leapfrog opportunities for climate protection and the transition to hydrogen (1999).   T98-01, Advanced Composites: The Car Is at the Crossroads (PDF-152k) Strategic recommendations for composite firms seeking to join the lightweight automotive material competition (1998).   T97-09, Speeding the Transition: Designing a Fuel-Cell Hypercar® (PDF-2.6MB) Hypercars' low-drag, low-load platform could accelerate the adoption of fuel cells in vehicles, argues this paper presented to the National Hydrogen Association in March 1997. It models three fuel-cell Hypercar® scenarios based on varying load-leveling capacities, and plots cumulative energy used in representative driving cycles. It also discusses onboard storage and the broader implications of fuel-cell Hypercars® for electricity infrastructure (1997).   T97-05, Hypercars®: A Market-Oriented Approach to Meeting Lifecycle Goals (PDF-94k) Growing social and regulatory pressures are compelling carmakers to pay greater attention to their products' total lifecycle environmental impacts-from materials extraction to use to disposal. This paper for the Society of Automotive Engineers details how Hypercar® vehicles' whole-system design can minimize lifecycle impacts (1997).   T97-04, Hypercar® Vehicles: Frequently Asked Questions (PDF-36k) This paper answers the basic questions about Hypercar® vehicles, discussing fuels, fuel economy, advanced composites, safety, cost, and recyclability (1997).   T96-14, Ultralight-Hybrid Vehicle Design: Implications for the Recycling Industry (PDF-52k) Hypercar® vehicles afford an opportunity to build recyclability into cars from the ground up, argues this paper written for the 1996 conference of the Society of Plastics Engineers' Recycling Division. Discusses the materials and design approach used in Hypercar® vehicles, the technologies necessary to recycle Hypercar® vehicles, potential markets for recycled Hypercar® materials, and durability (1996).   T96-10, Ultralight Hybrid Vehicles: Principles and Design (PDF-106k) Discussion of the main design issues for Hypercar® vehicles, with modeling and some analysis of an illustrative vehicle, prepared for the 1996 International Electric Vehicle Symposium (1996).   T96-09, Hypercars: The Next Industrial Revolution (PDF-70k) Overview from a paper presented at the 1996 IEV Symposium in Osaka, Japan (1996).   T95-39, Ultralight-Hybrid Vehicle Design: Overcoming the Barriers to Using Advanced Composites in the Automotive Industry (PDF-59k) This paper summarizes the ultralight, hybrid-electric Hypercar® concept, emphasizing why mass-optimization is crucial to its design; summarizes potentially applicable high-volume advanced composites technologies; recounts two recent studies of the main barriers to structural composites use in the BIW; explains why a whole-system application—not the conventionally prescribed component-based incrementalism—is probably the best way to conquer these barriers and create new opportunities; and explores in greater detail a key barrier of advanced composites, their manufacturing cost, to show how a whole-system application can circumvent it (1995).   T95-35, Costing the Ultralight in Volume Production: Are Composite Bodies-in-White Affordable? (PDF-160k) Using an industry-standard technical cost model, this paper for the International Body Engineering Conference explores the manufacturing and lifecycle costs of advanced composite autobodies. It examines the main costs of producing, using, and recycling composites for high-volume applications, and shows how ultralight carbon-fiber bodies can outcompete steel (December 1996 Revision).   T95-33, Building the E-motive Industry—Moving Toward a New System (PDF-24k) RMI is working with entities eager to bring Hypercar® vehicles, to market—several are automakers. The rest are non-automakers with impressive capabilities that they wish to apply to becoming automakers—in a new and different sense, obviously. This transcript is from an interview held on 24 March 1994 (1995).   T95-27, Vehicle Design Strategies to Meet and Exceed PNGV Goals (PDF-188k) This paper examines hybrid configurations, energy-storage mass, and safety. The intent is to present an approach to vehicle design that can yield marketable, production-worthy, high-performance automobiles while meeting or exceeding goals set by the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) (August 1995).   T94-29, Reinventing the Wheels (PDF-36k) The landmark article on the Hypercar® strategy that first appeared in Atlantic Monthly (January 1995). New ways to design, manufacture, and sell cars can make them ten times more fuel-efficient, and at the same time safer, sportier, more beautiful and comfortable, far more durable, and probably cheaper. Here comes the biggest change in industrial structure since the microchip (1994).   General Information Inquiries | Privacy Statement | Report Technical Problems ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE: Abundance by Design™ rmi.org is published by Rocky Mountain Institute. 1739 Snowmass Creek Road | Snowmass, CO 81654-9199 | Ph: 970.927.3851 Copyright 1999–2006. All Rights Reserved. thomfish@rmi.org Other RMI web sites include: Winning the Oil Endgame (www.oilendgame.org) Natural Capitalism (www.naturalcapitalism.org) National Energy Policy Initiative (www.nepinitiative.org) Small Is Profitable (www.smallisprofitable.org) The Community Energy Opportunity Finder (www.energyfinder.org) Powered by Site Management Console