The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $3 million grant to a Penn State-led team for hybrid car battery research. The department’s Vehicle Technology Office issued the two year grant in support of the High Energy, Long Cycle Life Lithium-ion Batteries for PHEV Applications project.

Penn State is partnered with the Argonne National Laboratory and EC Power, an industrial power products firm. The University of Texas at Austin and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are also part of the team, acting as co-investigators.

According to Penn State’s Donghai Wang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and principal investigator, the primary goal of the project is to develop high-energy, high-power lithium-ion batteries for use in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, also known as PHEV’s.

Essentially, they hope to broaden the range of hybrid vehicles through development of high-performance batteries that are safer, have a greater energy, power density, and longer lifespan.