I wonder how they prevent the batteries from burning when they are punctured? Diesel doesn’t really burn, but one bullet in the right place can destroy an entire EV in minutes.
So surround the battery in half inch thick carbon fiber plating and call it a day. Military vehicles are usually less worried about weight limits than civilian vehicles and they're especially not worried about looking pretty. Armoring your vehicle isn't a new idea.
Going to start running into cooling issues there as well.
Look, I'm all for electrification in as many places as we can, but there are absolutely many military use cases where they currently aren't feasible. Not to mention lithium batteries getting blown up is significantly worse for the surrounding environment long term than a diesel vehicle.
I would imagine the military is considering all of these factors. If there is actually political pressure to electrify vehicles in contexts where it's truly not appropriate, that would be alarming, but I haven't heard of any evidence of that happening at all, so I wouldn't say it's a meaningful concern.
Going to start running into cooling issues there as well.
Reinforced steel then? It both conducts heat and works as armor. I'm confident a technological solution exists.
I'm all for electrification in as many places as we can, but there are absolutely many military use cases where they currently aren't feasible.
Yes, and there are likely many circumstances where electric is preferable. With the right equipment this could allow military operations without supply chains delivering fuel. Batteries to be refilled by solar, or portable fission or fusion reactors, for example.
Not to mention lithium batteries getting blown up is significantly worse for the surrounding environment long term than a diesel vehicle.
I suspect a military that uses depleted uranium rounds and burns all its waste in massive fire pits doesn't prioritize pollution reduction.
CFRis actually not the best for ballistic protection. Chances are they will go with a composite based off chobbam armor. (Which may or may not be CF-reinforced ceramics,)
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<span style="color:#323232;">>The military is no place to experiment with untested technology.
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HAHAHAHAHA. Better tell that to the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command or the Army Futures Command or any of the other branches test and evaluation commands. That Gosar guy is a dipshit.
These are unserious people and it is shameful that we (collectively) have elected them to positions of power. If you've ever wanted to run for office but doubt your own abilities, just take a gander at these nimrods.
This is actually the best dystopian news I've read in awhile, whenever the military gets serious about a technology they usually throw money into it to make it cheaper and more efficient, which eventually ends up getting in the hands of us civilians. Teslas are still luxury vehicles, it'll be great if the military makes e-fords or some ungodly thing like that.
Yeah. They’re QC sucks. With all manner of defects like hoods flopping up on the highway, weather stripping literally just falling off, gaps in the interior. (And all sorts of other recalls.)
It doesn’t help that every thing is over engineered and prone to breaking in the first place.
Agreed. Also, electric vehicles are also much simpler mechanically speaking. They have fewer moving parts that can break relative to a modern gas engine. In-wheel electric motors wouldn't need a drive train, and would mean more room for other military stuff in vehicles.
If they had to do an emergency airlift supply drop, I wonder if they'd prefer dropping a massive battery vs a pile of gasoline. Although the battery would be more expensive I guess. Like airdrop a Tesla Megapack.
Also that'd be bad if a enemy overran them and then took that asset, so probably bad idea heh
Keep in mind that these proposed amendments would effect every vehicle purchase the military makes, which includes (as the article mentions) domestic fleets of vehicles that the military maintains. This isn’t just about front line war machinery; they’re arguing that EV tech is too experimental to allow the Pentagon to buy EVs for staff cars, or for military bases to use.
My dad used to work on a military base as a civilian in wastewater treatment plant. Part of his job, about once a day he’d hop in their little public works pickup truck and collect some water samples from a handful of places around the base, check on some gauges at a couple different sites, etc. If I had to guess he logged probably a max of 5 miles on a busy day (and that’s probably a very high estimate) All low speed, pretty sure speed limit around most of the base was like 25mph. He could practically have done his rounds in a power wheels Barbie jeep (and really the little Chevy S10 or whatever they had was probably overkill for their needs, something like a golf cart or kei truck would probably have been plenty)
And except for that maybe hour out of his day he would drive it around, that truck would pretty much just sit.
That would be such an ideal niche for an EV, it’s got like 23 hours to do nothing but charge. Hell, you could probably even charge it off a solar panel, doesn’t take a whole lot of juice to go 5 miles.
Excellent news. One bugaboo for me with a type of statistic lots of outlets use. That is, saying the new wind system will have the effect of taking 60,000 cars off the road over 25 years. They could say it would counter the emissions of over 3,000 cars every year.
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