Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) no. DE-FOA-0002893 entitled Fiscal Year 2023 Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Program Wide Funding Opportunity Announcement. | DE FOA 0002892

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002892

This notice is a preliminary announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), administered through the National Energy Technology Laboratory, indicating DOE's intent to release a future Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Program Wide effort for Fiscal Year 2023. It is important that the document is only a Notice of Intent, meaning it is provided strictly for planning and awareness. DOE is not requesting feedback on the notice, and it is not accepting applications at this stage. All details presented are subject to change once the full FOA is formally issued.

The anticipated FOA is framed around advancing research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities that support the broader national goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In practical terms, the opportunity is expected to target technologies and approaches that reduce transportation-related emissions while improving performance, affordability, and adoption of cleaner vehicle and infrastructure solutions across the U.S. transportation system.

The technical scope described in the notice highlights several priority areas. One major focus is lowering the weight and cost of batteries, which directly affects electric vehicle affordability, driving range, and overall market uptake. Another focus area is reducing life cycle emissions associated with advanced lightweight materials, signaling attention not only to tailpipe emissions but also to upstream and embedded emissions tied to material extraction, manufacturing, and end-of-life considerations. The notice also emphasizes reducing costs and advancing technologies for vehicle charging and associated infrastructure, explicitly covering both on-road and off-road applications. That inclusion suggests a broad view of electrification needs that extends beyond passenger vehicles to sectors such as medium- and heavy-duty fleets, industrial equipment, and potentially other off-road transportation and work platforms that require charging solutions adapted to different duty cycles and environments.

In addition, the notice points to innovative public transit solutions, indicating that the FOA may support projects that improve transit efficiency, electrification, or system performance in ways that meaningfully cut emissions at scale. Finally, it highlights training and workforce or stakeholder development aimed at increasing deployment of these technologies among diverse communities. That element suggests the FOA may include topic areas or requirements that address adoption barriers, workforce readiness, equitable access to technology benefits, and capacity-building so that new transportation technologies are deployed more broadly and effectively, rather than remaining limited to early-adopter regions or populations.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is listed as a discretionary grant opportunity using a cooperative agreement as the anticipated funding instrument. Cooperative agreements typically indicate substantial federal involvement during the project period compared with a standard grant, so applicants usually should expect more collaboration, technical oversight, or coordination with DOE. The activity category is Energy and Transportation, and the associated CFDA number listed is 81.086. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is open to a wide range of entity types, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that would be provided in the full FOA text.

The listing provides several dates and fields, but they should be treated cautiously because the notice itself states that details can change. The creation date shown is December 15, 2022, and an original closing date of February 22, 2023 is listed in the source data, even though the narrative makes clear that applications are not being accepted under this Notice of Intent. The record also shows an award ceiling of 2 (as presented in the source data) and expected awards of 0, which is consistent with the idea that this is not the actual solicitation but an informational precursor. The key takeaway is that organizations interested in battery cost and weight reduction, low life cycle emissions lightweight materials, charging and infrastructure innovations for multiple vehicle classes, next-generation transit solutions, and training or deployment-focused efforts tied to diverse communities would likely want to monitor DOE releases for the full FOA issuance and final application requirements.

• The Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory in the energy, transportation sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) no. DE-FOA-0002893 entitled Fiscal Year 2023 Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Program Wide Funding Opportunity Announcement." and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.086.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 15, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 22, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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