General Motors has announced that its GM Defense subsidiary will provide GM Ultium battery technology in support of the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Pulsed Power and Energy Laboratory (PPEL) and Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD).
Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Operational Energy Innovation office through its Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF), the Evaluation of Electric Vehicle Batteries to Enable Directed Energy (EEVBEDE) project will evaluate The General’s Ultium technologies in order to understand the present capabilities of commercial automotive batteries under dynamic discharge and charge scenarios. The hope is that this evaluation will provide options for domestically supplied energy storage for future use in military platforms.
“The Department of Defense can benefit from billions of dollars in GM investments to develop and manufacture transformative battery technologies,” GM Defense President Steve duMont remarked in a prepared statement. “These technologies offer significant potential to enhance operational capability, whether at the tactical edge or on installations throughout the world. GM Defense welcomes the opportunity to support this important project and to help transition our global defense and government customers.”
It’s worth noting that GM Defense is hoping to solve the DoD’s energy and energy storage challenges through its modular and scalable GM Ultium architecture, which can utilize different chemistries and cell form factors that allow it to adapt to changing needs and new technology insertions as they become available.
“We are excited to work with GM Defense to test the Ultium Platform to determine its potential for use in future war fighting applications,” PPEL Director and UTA Electrical Engineering Professor David Wetz stated. “PPEL has a long relationship with the DoD and the Office of Naval Research for testing the limits of batteries used in high power applications, and we are in a unique position to evaluate this technology and make recommendations for future use cases.”
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Comments
I guess there’s going to be more cargo ships sinking do to battery fires. Great way to save the planet with all these leaking batteries in are oceans. Hopefully this won’t continue to long as their has already been to many
There’s seemingly a limitless supply of absurd arguments against new technology.
Let the innovators pay for it and reap the benefits/liability! You think making the taxpayer pay for every lobbied science experiment – and its fallout – is what America is about? I must say you’re mistaken. We made changes and compromises to our ethos and way of life in the Cold War to combat a real evil draconian empire. We may have gotten so used to it we have forgotten what those compromises were/are and those who have enriched themselves from it.
Don’t get it twisted I’m a hawk every day- but not at the compromise of the most enlightened way of life ever conceived, which is the constitutional democratic republic of the United States of America.
Not sure what that comment has to do with mine, or the one I responded to.
An interesting point of view, though. I’m not sure which is better. The Soviets causing the U.S. to invest heavily in space and computer technology, resulting in great advances in those fields, or the current system of having your “innovators” enrich themselves pushing some technologies building on those prior advances, giving us things like smartphones, Facebook and Tinder. Maybe the Soviets managed to destroy our society after all??? We just didn’t see their sixty year plan.
The 800lb gorilla in the room – was the inference in my reply relating to your obscure comment… ‘new tech’ and its absurd arguments ( which your obviously passively stating are in this thread ) are actually neither.
We’ve (the taxpayers) have lost trillions into premature technology- displacing r&d for more efficient tech( the 800 lb. Gorilla ). The danger of the premature techs components toxicity on the health of humans, let alone the environment- is not an absurd criticism of this tech ( and what’s required to develop it ).
Especially in the theatre of war!
We have none to blame but ourselves, just as none can save us but ourselves ( or genius innovator(s) that are given a fair shake )
Btw check out the effects of lithium in the water supply on pregnant women.
Thank you for explaining. As to the government’s investment in tech, clearly it’s a mixed bag. NASA’s and the military’s investment in early computer technology probably paid off better than some others, such as solar. And I have a real issue with the $7,500 government investment in EVs, which really is just beneficial to the manufacturers, not the buyers, and which if it did benefit buyers would just benefit the relatively well to do (sort of a regressive benefit).
‘Probably’ is the word. Eisenhower, at the beginning of the Cold War, warned of the problems to come with the military industrial complex. For a Just capitalist society, would this problem be the very effective political fear mongering? To which every constituency is susceptible to.
The executive branch was (in the U.S.) the most checked and balanced in its inception because of its natural superior strength to the other branches of government. Lobbying for greater subsidy through deception (false equivalency of what’s GREEN), has destabilized the commercial markets from which we all derive our freedom.
State Capitalism is a parasitic virus.
All that’s left that isn’t comic relief, is classified.
Remember gulf war syndrome from exposure to chemicals that were released in explosions… agent orange… tainted water exposure…
I can’t wait for the real war on pollution .. since it seems many have been experiencing a siege of it.
As someone who spent 22 years (and two wars) in the Army, the last thing I would want under me is a giant battery.
Let me picture a scenario for you. Just imagine a big aircraft carrier being swarmed by hundreds of smart remote controlled torpedos powered by advanced batteries and motors. These things could travel fast and long distances due to advancements in batteries and electrical motors technology.
Why would you think that all this research is done only for placing a giant battery under EV Humvee drivers.
I wonder if the ultium battery platform would accommodate the newer sodium battery tech instead of the lithium?
I’m sure EV’s on the battlefield will be a great recruiting tool. Plenty of chargers out on the battlefield! The world has gone off the deep end. GM take your EV’s and stick them up your charging station.
The bad guys will be running circles around these worthless EVs in their Toyota pickups from 1985.
Or their GMC/Chevrolet GMT800/GMT900 trucks with Russian/North Korean weapons mounted on them will definitely outrun these stupid EVs . Many used in Syria and Iraq. I think the 1980s Toyotas are no more due to the sheer abuse they would have taken and if they break they would be torched…and GMC/Chevrolet trucks were also used (mostly 800s and 900s).
It’s an all electric future, until a large Carrington Event sets us back hundreds of years because we put all of our eggs in one basket.
@john
Subsidized thinking is rarely well grounded..
Ba-dump-bump-bump
We can still charge them with solar energy. BTW, gasoline refining needs plenty of electricity! So use electricty to run transportation instead of spending money again for refining.
I’m a huge EV proponent and even I say the military shouldn’t touch EVs for actual combat scenarios until solid-state batteries have matured.
I can only see a limited use for this technology in the military. Powering electronics on the base, etc. For other uses batteries would make about as much sense as they do for towing travel trailers, actually less sense given weight would be more of an issue for other uses.
The narrow-mindedness of some people… The article doesn’t even really say it’s for the sole purpose of an electrical vehicles. Idk a vehicle that can drive long distances on diesel then switch to electric mode to go undetected sounds pretty advantageous to me. I bet they have a lot of things in mind besides vehicles though.
Using batteries in the military is not something new. Technologically advanced batteries will only improve the military capabilities. And the article refers only into testing the GM Ultium technology capabilities for military applications.
I don’t understand why some posters were only thinking about EV Humvees running out of juice in the desert. What about drones, submarines, silent recon hybrid vehicles etc.
The day I can pour 410 miles of Electricity in my 1500 Silverado in 10 minutes. I will be at the dealer.
Don’t forget.. with as many charging stations at potential gas stations. Also a “battery can” that can replicate a gas can.
Reading these comments tells me that none of the posters understand the logistics nightmare of providing diesel fuel to an extended front line. Batteries and solar technology can reduce this nightmare.