The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award $51.7 million to transportation innovation projects aimed at expanding affordable, reliable mobility options across America. The 19 projects selected for this funding will focus on advancing a broad range of next generation technologies for the transportation sector. This includes electric vehicle (EV) battery technologies that use domestic, low-cost and abundant materials, improvements in off-road vehicle technologies, advancements in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connectivity, and innovations bolstering cybersecurity in EV charging systems and infrastructure.

Funded projects focus on:

• Topic 1: Next Generation Phosphate Based Cathodes. $17 million toward four projects to advance state-of-the-art for high-energy density battery cells containing phosphate-based cathodes. These projects combine lithium- and manganese-rich materials with phosphate-based materials.

• Topic 2: Sodium (Na)-ion Battery Seedling Projects for EV Applications. $6 million toward five projects building sodium-ion EV battery solutions, including a self-extinguishing electrolyte platform that extends the Na-ion battery cycle life while improving battery safety.

• Topic 3: Low Greenhouse Gas Concepts for Off-Road Vehicles. $7.2 million toward four projects developing and demonstrating off-road vehicle technology concepts such as a renewable fuel engines for long run-times, and an off-road engine using hydrogen combustion.

• Topic 4: Saving Energy with Connectivity. $7 million toward two projects to support develop and deploy V2X technologies such as connected vehicles, and an interoperable and scalable V2X-based traffic management system.

• Topic 5: Domestically Produced E-Steels. $5.6 million toward two projects to support development of domestic production and manufacturing of electrical steels, including the scale-up of several new promising alloys.

• Topic 6: Cybersecurity for Smart and Secure Electric Vehicle Charging. $8.5 million toward two projects to research, develop, and demonstrate systems, technologies, and tools needed for cybersecure EVs and EV charging infrastructure, including projects focused on vehicle-to-grid infrastructure, and innovative tools to test and ensure compliance with multiple protocols and standards for interoperability and cybersecurity.