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n Energy Laboratory assessment of likely new technologies for passenger cars in 2020 has come up with no overall winners in the race for cars with lower greenhouse-gas and other emissions. Initial results from the assessment show that the gains from continued work on conventional fuels and vehicles are so great that emerging technologies like the fuel cell will have trouble competing. By 2020, conventional vehicles will be twice as efficient, half as polluting, and cost little more. New technologies will provide somewhat greater efficiency and emissions gains but at a much higher cost. With little or no private benefit to purchasers, the new technologies are unlikely to succeed in the marketplace unless government action or public pressure calls for major reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. The MIT researchers compared the technologies using data from various sources, adjusted so that key assumptions were consistent. Calculations included energy use and emissions not only from driving the vehicle but also from making and delivering the fuel— a change that dramatically reduced A