Transportation drives our nation’s economy. Each year, vehicles transport 11 billion tons of freight- about $35 billion worth of goods each day- and move people more than 3 trillion vehicle-miles. Sustaining our economic prosperity requires transportation, but our nation’s current transportation system is energy-intense. The transportation sector accounts for ~30% of total U.S. energy needs and 70% of U.S. petroleum consumption. Additionally, the average U.S. household spends >15% of its total family expenditures on transportation, making it the most expensive spending category after housing.

The EEMS Program supports VTO’s mission to improve transportation energy efficiency through low-cost, secure, and clean energy technologies. EEMS conducts early-stage research and development (R&D) at the vehicle, traveler, and system levels, creating knowledge, insights, tools, and technology solutions that increase mobility energy productivity for individuals and businesses. This multi-level approach is critical to understanding the opportunities that exist for optimizing the overall transportation system. The EEMS Program uses this approach to develop tools and capabilities to evaluate the energy impacts of new mobility solutions, and to create new technologies that provide economic benefits to all Americans through enhanced mobility.

Vision: The EEMS Program envisions an affordable, efficient, safe, and accessible transportation future in which mobility is decoupled from energy consumption.

Mission: The EEMS Program conducts early-stage R&D at the vehicle, traveler, and system levels, creating new knowledge, tools, insights, and technology solutions that increase mobility energy productivity for individuals and businesses.

SMART Mobility Laboratory Consortium

The SMART (Systems and Modeling for Accelerated Research in Transportation) Mobility Laboratory Consortium is a multi-year, multi-laboratory collaborative dedicated to further understanding the energy implications and opportunities of advanced mobility solutions.

In FY2020, the EEMS Program concluded the first phase of research under “SMART Mobility 1.0,” a 3-year effort consisting of 5 national laboratories and 30+ projects spanning 5 coordinated research pillars:

  • Advanced Fueling Infrastructure
  • Connected and Automated Vehicles       
  • Mobility Decision Science
  • Multi-Modal Freight
  • Urban Science

At the conclusion of the first phase of SMART Mobility, EERE published six SMART Mobility Capstone reports summarizing the Consortium’s research methods, results, and insights. Findings were also highlighted in a monthly webinar series. See key insights in the photo gallery below:

Smart Mobility Laboratory Consortium

Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs)
1/6 Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs)
The continued growth of CAV technologies changes the way vehicles move and travelers achieve mobility. The EEMS Program is identifying the significant impacts CAVs have on energy consumption, as well as other facets of transportation, at scales ranging from the individual vehicle level to the transportation system level.
Photo courtesy of
Mobility Decision Science (MDS)
2/6 Mobility Decision Science (MDS)
MDS examines the underlying identity, preference, personality, lifecycle, geographical, and contextual factors that impact transportation behaviors. Interest includes adoption and use of emerging transportation technologies and services such as vehicle automation, vehicle electrification, ride-hailing, shared modes, and e-commerce.
Photo courtesy of
Urban Science (US)
3/6 Urban Science (US)
US focuses on maximum-mobility and minimum-energy opportunities associated with emerging technologies and transportation-technologies within the urban context, and views cities as living organisms. The urban mobility system consists of a complex network that reaches well beyond roads and vehicles to include public transit, parking reserves, curb management, and more.
Photo courtesy of
Advanced Fueling Infrastructure (AFI)
4/6 Advanced Fueling Infrastructure (AFI)
AFI initiatives use modeling, simulation, and data analysis tools to investigate tradeoffs in different charging infrastructure network designs for human-driven and fully automated transportation options. It also assesses the potential of charging infrastructure installed to support ride hailing to influence mobility and energy-consumption trends on a national scale.
Photo courtesy of
Multimodal Freight (MMF)
5/6 Multimodal Freight (MMF)
MMF research and development is used to assess the effectiveness of emerging freight movement technologies and understand the impacts of the growing trends in consumer spending and e-commerce on parcel movement considering mobility, energy, and productivity. This assessment is accomplished by using available data sets and modeling tools to understand trends in freight movement and the associated impact of alternative technologies in the medium-and heavy-duty space.
Photo courtesy of
Image of large-scale transportation system
6/6 SMART Mobility Workflow
The SMART Workflow allows researchers to evaluate the energy, mobility, and affordability outcomes of potential future transportation scenarios. The EEMS Program evaluates these outcomes in terms of vehicle miles traveled, travel time, energy, cost, greenhouse gas emissions, and other metrics. Agent-based modeling frameworks, such as POLARIS, are used to simulate large-scale transportation systems, such as the one in this image. This allows for the development of integrated models to evaluate transportation improvements.
Photo courtesy of ANL

Building upon the research results and insights from the first phase of SMART Mobility, EEMS launched “SMART Mobility 2.0” in FY2020. SMART Mobility 2.0 is comprised of 6 National Laboratories and supports continuing research from SMART 1.0 as well as new research projects. The Consortium is the EEMS Program’s primary effort to create tools and generate knowledge about how future mobility systems may evolve and identify R&D gaps that the EEMS Program may address through its research portfolio. The Consortium includes several analytical projects on various aspects of the transportation system illustrated below:

SMART 2.0 Graphic
EEMS Reports & Publications

Reports and publications describing the results of VTO research and development.

Funding Opportunities

  

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