The United States Department of Energy has awarded up to $30 million in funding for three cost-shared plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle demonstration and development projects led by General Motors, Ford and General Electric, which is working with Chrysler.

AutoTech Daily reported that the three-year projects are the first to be announced under DOE’s PHEV Technology Acceleration and Deployment Activity initiative. Additional selections will be announced in a month.

The projects aim to accelerate the development of PHEVs capable of traveling up to 40 miles without recharging, which DOE says covers 70 percent of average daily commutes in the U.S. Other objectives include identifying and overcoming potential hurdles to  achieving DOE’s goal of making PHEVs cost-competitive by 2014 and ready for commercialization by 2016.

The projects will be demonstrated in geographically diverse regions to identify performance, operation and fuel economy in real-world environments.

GM will lead a program aimed at enhancing lithium-ion battery packs, charging systems, powertrain development, vehicle integration and vehicle validation. Other team members include Electric Power Research Institute, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Ford’s team will focus on mass-production issues. The group, which includes Johnson Controls-Saft and Southern California Edison, will test and demonstrate the propulsion system design, controls and battery systems.

GE and Chrysler will integrate GE’s dual-battery energy storage system into plug-in cars. The technology currently is being tested in a hybrid locomotive and is being adapted for off-road truck applications. Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli is a former GE executive.

Earlier this year GE invested in Norwegian electric carmaker Th!nk Global and Watertown, Mass.-based A123 Systems Inc., a developer of lithium-ion battery technology. Ann Arbor's battery and fuel cell researcher T/J Technologies is a subsidiary of A123.