Update Adds Cost and Performance Data for New Vehicle Classes and Aviation Pathways
for Current and Future Markets
Photo from Getty Images
In its first-ever update, the Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) now offers its users expanded cost and performance data to inform transportation
sector analysis nationwide.
The Transportation ATB, first released in 2020, was developed by the U.S. Department
of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with Argonne
National Laboratory and provides detailed cost and performance data, estimates, and
assumptions for current and future vehicle and fuel technologies in the United States
through 2050.
The goal of the Transportation ATB is to integrate data from various sources into
an accessible format that provides a consistent set of key assumptions for transportation
analysis. The work is supported by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy, including the Strategic Analysis Team, Bioenergy Technologies Office, Vehicle
Technologies Office, and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office.
“The introduction of the Transportation ATB in 2020 was an important step in providing
trusted, consistent data for cross-sectoral analyses,” said ATB Lead Laura Vimmerstedt.
“Now with this update, the Transportation ATB broadens the scope of the analyses it
can support—covering more diverse vehicle and fuel technologies and providing more
detailed data for robust analyses.”
The Transportation ATB provides consolidated and comprehensive data from cutting-edge
sources such as Argonne National Laboratory’s Autonomie powertrain simulation tool and Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies Model. The Transportation ATB offers a suite of free, publicly available resources to help
users easily interact with the data and meet their analysis needs. This includes user
guidance and methodologies available on the ATB website, a Tableau workbook with interactive charts and visualizations, and formatted data
with database-friendly summaries.
What Is New in This Update
The Transportation ATB provides vehicle data in a series of interactive charts for
either a single year or a trajectory out to 2050 for fuel economy, modeled vehicle
price, levelized cost of driving, and emissions. These metrics are available for a
variety of individual powertrains, as well as in comparison with other powertrains.
This update expands upon the available vehicle technologies to include additional
classes of light-duty vehicles. The update also introduces data for select medium-
and heavy-duty vehicles—including step van, box truck, and long-haul sleepers—and
their associated powertrains. Another important data addition is current and future
projections of fuel consumption, cost, and emissions in domestic, commercial aviation
for passenger and freight transport in the United States. This includes data for both
conventional and sustainable aviation fuel.
In addition to the vehicle data, the Transportation ATB provides fuels data, with
this update providing price or cost, production, and emissions estimates for selected
fuels in four new categories: on-road fuels, blendstocks, marine fuels, and the newly
added aviation fuels.
Learn More at December 14 Webinar
More information about the Transportation Annual Technology Baseline update will be
presented at a free webinar from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. MST (11 a.m.–12 p.m. EST) on Thursday,
Dec. 14, 2023. Presenters will describe the updates in detail, share examples of how
to use the data, and provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions. Register for the webinar.
Read more about the Transportation ATB, and register for the Transportation ATB update webinar on Dec. 14.
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