GM spent time at its electrification summit with Army officials trying to convince them to skip hybrid and charge toward fully electric options.Įchoing Dean, other Army leaders, including Chief of Staff Gen.

It has taken an ISV and turned it into an all-electric concept vehicle to show the Army the realm of the possible. GM Defense is building the Army's Infantry Squad Vehicle, which is already being fielded to Army units. If you took the amount of batteries with current technology that you would need to move an Abrams tank purely electrically, it’s bigger than the tank, so we have a packaging and storage problem when it comes to pure electric.” That might be the first case,” he said, “because it’s about size and weight. Glenn Dean, the program executive officer for ground combat systems, told Defense News in an interview in Warren, about a 50-minute drive from GM’s proving ground. When it comes to combat vehicles like Abrams tanks, Stryker combat vehicles and Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, “I’m not sure we’re going fully electric any time soon,” Brig. Then they traded that for a fully electric version to consider the performance differences. Army Infantry Squad Vehicle - produced by GM Defense - through an off-road course, climbing steep, rocky inclines, zipping around tight corners, and rumbling over gravel and plowing through mud. But there is still little funding applied to efforts to find alternative fuel to power its current and future combat and tactical vehicle fleets.Īt the beginning of June, GM Defense, whose parent company General Motors is a global leader in commercial electric vehicles, hosted Army officials at its Milford Proving Grounds in Michigan.

Future military spider tank