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ARGONNE, Ill. — It's like a giant rolling Erector Set for engineers who really like to play around with automotive components.

Formally called the Mobile Automotive Technology Testbed, or MATT, the bare-bones chassis at Argonne National Laboratory plays a vital part in research into new ways to power vehicles.

One day, the engineers can test how an electric motor performs with a gasoline-powered engine and a manual transmission. The next day, they can substitute an engine fueled by hydrogen. Soon they intend to place giant batteries on the MATT's rear platform to research a plug-in hybrid vehicle that could increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.

Argonne, one of the U.S. Energy Department's largest research centers, is just one of the dozens of national laboratories, private companies, universities and automakers' research facilities around the country working on such projects.

The building where MATT is housed illustrates the nation's changing priorities. The structure previously was used for research into magnets necessary for use in nuclear reactors. When that work ended in the 1970s, the building sat empty for years.

Now it's devoted to the lab's Center for Transportation Research, where among other projects the staff is working to develop, test or perfect vehicles that can run on everything from ethanol to hydrogen, methanol to wood chips.

"You can almost see the transition in the country's needs," said Don Hillebrand, the center's director.

Hillebrand said he's confident that the nation can move away from its dependence on foreign oil, but he said he believes the solution lies in a combination of new options, not one single answer.

"We are the Saudi Arabia of coal, because we've got all the coal we want," Hillebrand said. "We're the Saudi Arabia of shale oil, tar sands, biofuels . . . solar, wind. The U.S. has got substantial carriers of fuel and energy supplies. The problem the U.S. has is they're not oil — they're in different forms.

"So what our research is really focusing on is giving the U.S. alternatives to just using oil, and there are a lot of alternatives," Hillebrand continued.

Hydrogen fuel cells are often mentioned as one of the most promising alternatives. The fuel cell would use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with water as the byproduct.

Although Argonne has done work on fuel cells and similar futuristic technologies, Hillebrand said he is most excited about its potential to play a lead role among the national labs in developing plug-in hybrids.

A standard hybrid such as the Toyota Prius uses an electric motor, a small battery and a gasoline engine. With a plug-in hybrid, the small battery is replaced by much bigger battery packs that can be recharged through a standard 120-volt outlet.

With such a car, a driver could travel the first 10, 20 or even 40 miles of a trip on battery power before the vehicle would switch to the gasoline engine, Hillebrand said.

"You've now just, for most people, eliminated . . . half of all the oil they use," he said.

Drawbacks remain. Owning a plug-in hybrid would be a challenge for anyone who does not live in a single-family home with a garage or carport and a readily available outlet.

Before the plug-in hybrid could hit the road in mass numbers, the batteries would likely have to become lighter, less expensive and longer-lasting. And there is concern about the capability of the electrical grid to support a nationwide fleet of such vehicles — although supporters say most would be charged overnight, during off-peak hours for utilities.

With a concerted effort to solve the battery problems, Hillebrand said, plug-in hybrids could be feasible for mass production in 18 months.

Plug-in hybrids are "inevitable," said Bradley Berman, editor of HybridCars.com, a Web site that provides consumer information about hybrid vehicles.

"We can't wait for the great hope to arrive," Berman said. "It's in incremental steps and incremental improvements that these things get played out, and that's what hybrids show."

Argonne researchers expect to receive four plug-in batteries for MATT in June. But they couldn't wait to start doing some tests, so they took a Prius, disconnected its small battery and used a power-processing system to simulate the larger battery used in a plug-in hybrid.

The result? A car that traveled 78 miles on one gallon of gasoline.