The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Assessment of Technologies for Improving Fuel Economy of Light-Duty Vehicles, Phase 3 was tasked by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with providing estimates of the potential cost, fuel economy improvements, and barriers to deployment of technologies for improving fuel economy in 2025-2035 light-duty vehicles. The National Academies Committee was investigating the state of vehicle mass reduction technology readiness and the impact of mass reduction on fuel economy while maintaining vehicle performance and safety requirements.

The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) was commissioned by NASEM to study vehicle mass reduction for model years 2025-2035. Over the past decade, CAR has been a leader in light-duty vehicle mass reduction research. CAR has done work on assessing the real-world barriers to implementing mass reduction technologies (J. Baron, 2016). CAR also worked with nine global vehicle manufacturers to examine material trends over the next decade (Baron & Modi, 2016). The project still stands as one of the most cooperative and thorough analyses done to date. CAR collected data on 42 vehicles from 4 segments representing 50 percent of the U.S. light-duty fleet. Most recently, CAR has published a Materials and Manufacturing Technology Roadmap (Modi & Vadhavkar).

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