2022 GMC Hummer EV

Grey Havoc

Grey Havoc

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Placed here rather than the bar, since it seems that the US Military will be now buying a fair few examples (hopefully at least some bit properly militarised) as part of the Biden administration's government vehicle fleet EV initiative (though I'm a fair bit sceptical myself on how well it will work in practice). The U.S. Army will probably be ordered to lead the way. The video below was made 3 months ago, before current events.

View: https://youtu.be/LkM0L4_W_pM



A few reports on the aforementioned initiative in general:
www.cnbc.com

Biden plans to replace government fleet with electric vehicles

The government is a major purchaser of vehicles. However, replacing such a fleet with EVs assembled domestically will be costly and take time.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com

jalopnik.com

The U.S. Government's Entire 645,000-Vehicle Fleet Will Go All-Electric - Jalopnik

The United States government operates a fleet of about 645,000 vehicles, from mail delivery trucks to military vehicles and passenger cars. On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that his administration intends to replace them all with American-made, electric alternatives.
jalopnik.com jalopnik.com

hardware.slashdot.org

The US Government's Entire 645,000-Vehicle Fleet Will Go All-Electric - Slashdot

Jalopnik reports: The United States government operates a fleet of about 645,000 vehicles, from mail delivery trucks to military vehicles and passenger cars. On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that his administration intends to replace them all with American-made, electric alternatives...
hardware.slashdot.org
 
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There's no indication that the electrification mandate will apply to military vehicles for field use. It's about pool cars that get used around town, for the most part.
 
TomS said:
There's no indication that the electrification mandate will apply to military vehicles for field use. It's about pool cars that get used around town, for the most part.
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I'm sure that'll be inexpensive. And not at all ridiculous to replace hundreds of thousands of fully functional vehicles that can be easily and cheaply maintained that still have potentially decades of life in them with new complex vehicles of uncertain lifespan.

logo1400x1400.jpg

A more sensible approach would be to invest instead in thermal deploymerization and similar technologies to turn sewage and biowaste and whatnot directly into petroleum and use *that* to fuel government vehicles.
 
You keep imagining things that haven't been said.

The current requirement is to come up with a plan to replace government vehicles with electric. That doesn't mean junking existing vehicles, which is good because right now there isn't enough production capacity to replace even a sizable fraction immediately.

Note that the vehicles likely to be replaced include a ton of postal vehicles, which are long overdue for replacement. And electric mail vans are already being planned; USPS has already contracted for demonstrators.
 
TomS said:
The current requirement is to come up with a plan
Click to expand...
That's the whole friggen' problem. If electric vehicles are practical replacements for gas vehicles, then they will replace them in due time with minimal fuss. But if there is A Plan... well, how well do government plans *ever* work out?
 
Orionblamblam said:
TomS said:
The current requirement is to come up with a plan
Click to expand...
That's the whole friggen' problem. If electric vehicles are practical replacements for gas vehicles, then they will replace them in due time with minimal fuss. But if there is A Plan... well, how well do government plans *ever* work out?
Click to expand...
clean energy is kinda like moon and mars landing. There's no reason for private sector to dump money into technology with the goal of it being just as good in capability and same cost as current tech for some lofty ideology of a greater good that won't immediately make them money. that's where govt jumps in.
 
donnage99 said:
Orionblamblam said:
TomS said:
The current requirement is to come up with a plan
Click to expand...
That's the whole friggen' problem. If electric vehicles are practical replacements for gas vehicles, then they will replace them in due time with minimal fuss. But if there is A Plan... well, how well do government plans *ever* work out?
Click to expand...
clean energy is kinda like moon and mars landing. There's no reason for private sector to dump money into technology with the goal of it being just as good in capability and same cost as current tech for some lofty ideology of a greater good that won't immediately make them money. that's where govt jumps in.
Click to expand...
That's fine. Having the government do important research is Constitutionally justifiable and laudable. Where I have a problem is when policy makers make decisions about how the entire economy is going to be set up in a very short period of time based on the *assumption* that some technology or other - based on currently non-existent physics - will be deployed in an economical and reliable way. Imagine if in the early 1960's the entire United States power grid was to be set up so that fusion plants would be providing all the energy by 1978 or so. Or if national health policy planning circa 1980 was based on the idea that cancer would be cured by 1990. If space planning circa 1995 was entirely based on the notion that by 2005 all space launches would be conducted with VentureStar SSTOs using linear aerospikes burning slush supercooled LOX mixed with a slush-hydrogen/lithium gel propellant, stored within graphene composite multi-lobe tanks.

The government wants a future of electric cars? Great. Devote effort to making electric cars actually practical (300 miles range is nice, but charge times measured in *hours?* Get bent.) And when the technology has actually been commercially and successfully demonstrated, THEN start making policy changes.
 
Ever look at Tesla stock (and hype-ware EV startups) prices? The market is throwing money at EV in an frantic act of FOMO, there isn't much need for government money. With penny pinching amazon finding use for EV delivery vans, the tech and operating cost curve is good enough to replace ICE vehicles as fast as batteries can be built for a while.

What the government need to do is sort out the electrical infrastructure, including finally standardizing charger plugs (or gasp, battery swap infrastructure!), and help build out the electric grid and charge points. Those are complicated multi-level coordination problems that no single private company can deal with regardless of stock price. Strategic patent buy outs to prevent legal challenges blocking development can be useful (imagine a patent troll sitting on a few key tech), though I don't think the US government have a mechanism for this right now. (not american)

This announcement just sounds like the government reflecting the public sentiment, probably end up a somewhat money wasting nothingburger.
 
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Since the introductory post was focused on the military usage of an EV Hummer, here is something less radical, ready to be introduced through a current fleet upgrade that could bring limited to medium pure electric range, increase traction and torque as well as introducing a stealth mode:

View: https://youtu.be/eA36jWvYCnA


This is the perfect upgrade to evaluate militarized EV through direct truck to truck comparisons.
 
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Grey Havoc said:
In other news, via Slashdot (links to the MSN version of the story):
Click to expand...

Like many of its competitors, GM has made huge investments in EV battery factories, and in production lines for the vehicles themselves, and it faces challenges in generating a return on investment in the short term. Both of GM’s existing battery plants are operating at less than full capacity, and the company recently sold its stake in an under-construction plant in Michigan to LG Energy. Last year, GM said it would delay building a fourth battery facility, with Samsung, in Indiana.

The problem, according to Telemetry automotive analyst Sam Abuelsamid, is that GM projected EV demand would grow much faster than it has. Three or four years ago, companies like GM, Ford and Stellantis thought 50% of the vehicles they sold in the U.S. by 2030 would be electric, he adds. “We’re nowhere near that.”

In the long run, however, GM’s focus on creating a North American supply chain for batteries could prove savvy, says David Whiston, U.S. auto equities analyst at Morningstar. The company is investing $625 million to mine lithium in Nevada. It is working on sourcing every material and every part in its batteries domestically, down to the copper and aluminum foils that go into its cells, says Kelty.
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From back in 2023:
www.defensenews.com

US Army ready to pursue electric light recon vehicle

The Army evaluated General Motors’ Hummer EV, a Canoo platform and a Lordstown Motors truck.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com

Using some funding in FY22 to get started, the program office conducted market research that included purchasing some commercial electric vehicles in order to test them against an operational mission profile, Peterson explained.

“We took these platforms up to Grayling, Michigan, where we have test facilities, and we put them through their paces,” he said. “The intent of that was to identify what are going to be the operational and/or technical gaps that we need to think about as we solidify this requirement and initiate this program.”

The Army evaluated General Motors’ Hummer EV, a Canoo platform and a Lordstown Motors truck, Peterson explained, describing them as “three disparate vehicles offering different technical solutions.”

The evaluation team is now in the process of preparing a test report, which will feed into the prototyping effort, Peterson added.

At this point, vehicle solutions that could be chosen for the prototyping effort might include both hybrid and all-electric options. “I think we all believe that full electric and today’s battlefield is probably a stretch given the … charging capabilities that would be required,” Peterson said, “but we want to see what industry can do.”

Should the Army choose an all-electric platform, the eLRV would likely be the first to enter the force with that capability.
Click to expand...
 

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