The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a $2.7m grant to two of its national laboratories and the University of Michigan (U-M) to study whether connected and automated vehicles can enable efficient driving and save energy consumption.

The award has been granted for a three-year period, and will see Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory work with U-M.

DOE deputy assistant secretary for transportation Reuben Sarkar said: "I want to congratulate the University of Michigan as the recipient of our incubator award, in partnership with Argonne National Lab and Idaho National Lab, to help us study the energy impact of connected and automated vehicles by taking advantage of U-M’s 500-vehicle fleet."

"This research will help us better understand the potential energy savings and identify possible obstacles to achieving meaningful reductions."

The U-M researchers for the study have been selected from its mobility transformation centre (MTC), transportation research institute and college of engineering.

Research will be carried out on the personal vehicles of 500 Ann Arbor-based volunteers, who use them for their daily routines. Some of the vehicles could also be taken from commercial users.

The vehicles will be equipped to collect energy consumption data, in adddition to the speed and location of the moving vehicles.

The project will also research on how drivers react to several functions in connected and automated vehicles, and whether any resulting behaviourial change impacts energy consumption.

The vehicles mostly used for the project will be hybrid-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles and battery-electric vehicles. A few traditional cars or trucks will also be utilised.

MTC associate director and the DOE project principal investigator Huei Peng said: "Reducing emissions and saving fuel are expected to be significant benefits once connected and automated vehicles are on the road in large numbers.

"Unlike the safety impact of these vehicles, however, energy consumption has not been widely studied. This research will help us better understand the potential energy savings and identify possible obstacles to achieving meaningful reductions."

Argonne will contribute modelling and simulation expertise in transportation system and vehicle energy consumption, as well as develop a display module in order to better understand the behaviour of drivers.

The project will also make use of Argonne’s Autonomie vehicle system modelling tool and its POLARIS system, an open-source, high-speed computing framework for traffic flow and transportation system modeling.

Idaho National Laboratory will consult on the project to offer guidance about data collection and analysis.