$60 million of the DoE funds will go to the United States Advanced Battery Consortium to further develop lightweight, lower-cost batteries for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as less expensive battery recycling processes.

The remaining $71 million is being split across 27 other projects, each focused on increasing driving range range, reducing battery costs, and advancing on-board EV charging systems and telematics. Among those projects, battery tech startups Lyten and Zeta Energy, as well as manufacturing company Coherent, stand out – because they’re working on lithium-sulfur batteries.

Each of the three companies received more than $3 million specifically to develop lithium-sulfur battery tech, which researchers at Argonne National Lab say could be more affordable to produce than ion-based batteries while also offering superior energy density to “conventional” li-ion batteries.

Despite the fact that numerous studies and at least one smart truck-maker have already written off hydrogen as a viable transport fuel, diesel engine manufacturers Cummins and Paccar were each awarded $3.5 million for R&D related to hydrogen internal combustion engines for heavy-duty vehicles.