Reducing fuel consumption in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles -- such as tractor-trailers, transit buses, and work trucks -- consume about 26 percent of transportation fuel used in the U.S. Congress has charged the U.S. Department of Transportation with developing fuel economy standards for these vehicles, whose fuel consumption currently is not regulated. TECHNOLOGIES AND APPROACHES TO REDUCING THE FUEL CONSUMPTION OF MEDIUM AND HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLES, a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council, assesses technologies that could lower the fuel use of this group of vehicles. The report also recommends approaches the federal government could take to regulating these vehicles' fuel consumption. The report will be released at 11 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 31.

Source: National Academy of Sciences