SwRI completes 8-year-long NEXTCAR energy efficiency project

SwRI’s award-winning NEXTCAR project demonstrated vehicle energy savings up to 30%

2025-07-22

(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO — July 22, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has successfully completed its ambitious eight-year-long connected and automated (CAV) vehicle technology project.

As part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) NEXTCAR (NEXT-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated On-Road Vehicles) program, SwRI developed an automated vehicle that combines CAV technology and SAE Level 4 automation to demonstrate up to 30% energy savings compared to traditional hybrid vehicles, without modifications to the powertrain hardware. The completed SwRI NEXTCAR vehicle was adapted from a commercially available plug-in hybrid sedan. SwRI showcased its technology at the NEXTCAR program’s capstone event, known as the ARPA-E Field Day, which took place at the American Center for Mobility in Michigan in June.

SwRI’s NEXTCAR automated driving platform combines widely adopted sensing technologies, such as lidar, with SwRI’s patented Ranger localization technology. The vehicle is equipped with a specialized algorithm suite that includes cooperative control capabilities and smart lane merging and changing functionality. It also uses SwRI-developed drive-by-wire technology to automate operations of the vehicle’s accelerator, brake pedals and electronic power steering system.

During the Field Day, SwRI’s NEXTCAR vehicle, guided by the Institute’s custom localization and drive-by-wire controllers, performed highly accurate and repeatable automated driving tasks along a pre-mapped route. The vehicle’s eco-driving controller, developed on an Android app, showed spectators the optimized speed information in real-time. Attendees included SwRI staff from the Powertrain Engineering and Intelligent Systems divisions, ARPA-E representatives, and mobility industry stakeholders; it also included demonstrations from fellow NEXTCAR teams from Ohio State University and Michigan Technological University.

SwRI’s NEXTCAR project was an iterative program that built upon the success of each phase, year-by-year. The “Eco-Mobility with Connected Powertrains” technology suite developed in the first phase of the program (2017-2021) received an R&D 100 Award in 2021. That same year, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded SwRI a three-year, $5.25 million grant through the ARPA-E NEXTCAR program to continue the work in a second phase.

“The Field Day demonstration was the culmination of years of hard work, collaboration and innovation by the SwRI NEXTCAR Team,” said Stas Gankov, an SwRI manager and the project’s principal investigator. “Our team pulled multidisciplinary experts from across SwRI’s many research divisions to showcase the potential benefits CAV technology and automation offer for a greener mobility industry. The project has yielded incredible results on that front.”

Through its NEXTCAR program, SwRI collected vast amounts of data as part of a larger Institute effort to develop connected vehicle technology. The comprehensive process involved traffic simulations, custom high-fidelity vehicle simulators, algorithm refinement and rigorous testing on a CAV dynamometer. The project team seeks collaborators and industry members for a potential joint industry program/consortium to expand on the work completed during NEXTCAR.

“I am proud of what our team accomplished over this eight-year-long effort,” said Daniel Stewart, vice president of the SwRI Powertrain Engineering Division. “While the demonstration was conducted with a plug-in hybrid vehicle, the CAV technology applies to all vehicle powertrains, including pure electric, combustion engine only and conventional hybrid vehicles. The technology is extremely valuable for heavy-duty and fleet vehicles. We look forward to collaborating with industry to commercialize the technology.”

The “Eco-Mobility with Connected Powertrains” technology suite and Phase II developments are available to license. For more information, visit Connected Powertrain Solutions or contact Stas Gankov at +1 210 522 6206 to learn more.

Watch a video highlighting SwRI’s NEXTCAR II project: https://youtu.be/Dtz0mhKmEAM.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/automotive-transportation/automotive/automotive-software-electronics/connected-powertrain.

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[Press-News.org] SwRI completes 8-year-long NEXTCAR energy efficiency project
SwRI’s award-winning NEXTCAR project demonstrated vehicle energy savings up to 30%