Taratec was engaged by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to provide tools to assist in the selection and evaluation of technical R&D programs in support of the goals of DOE’s Office of Heavy Vehicles Technology. Taratec created an R&D assessment methodology that quantified technical risk, commercial risk, and mission impact for more than 100 individual projects. To develop a model showing the impact of each technology on fuel consumption by the Class 7&8 fleet, Taratec obtained information on industry practices from interviews with heavy truck OEMs, component manufacturers, trade associations, shippers, trucking companies and DOT personnel. Taratec’s model allows the agency’s technology portfolio to be segmented according to impact areas, time to completion, project stage, technology type, leadership, funding source, and cumulative funding level. Using this model, the program managers can determine whether their technical programs contain any gaps and if they are selecting projects with risk levels appropriate to their mission. They can determine which new projects will result in a better-balanced portfolio and which existing projects need to be reviewed more closely.
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