National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Learning About Renewable Energy

Fuel Cell, Hybrid Electric, and Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles

Photo of a small blue subcompact vehicle in a roadway with other vehicles and foothills in the background.

Experimental fuel cell vehicles like this Honda FCX are being tested and developed by NREL and its industry partners.
Credit: Tom Brewster

To help reduce the nation's dependence on imported oil, researchers at NREL, at other laboratories, and in industry are developing advanced vehicles that can run either partly or completely on electricity.

These advanced vehicles provide greater fuel economy, because they cost less to operate than conventional vehicles do, while they reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions that are associated with global climate change.

To learn more about these kinds of vehicles, visit the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels & Advanced Vehicles Data Center Web site.