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GM Ultium Batteries to Underpin Future Tactical Military Vehicles

War, as we all know, is a messy business, in more aspects than one. But that doesn’t mean some armies can’t fight them while taking care of fuel expenditures and minding the environment.
U.S. military looking with interest at GM's Ultium platform 6 photos
Photo: GM
U.S. military looking with interest at GM's Ultium platformU.S. military looking with interest at GM's Ultium platformU.S. military looking with interest at GM's Ultium platformU.S. military looking with interest at GM's Ultium platformU.S. military looking with interest at GM's Ultium platform
Having pretty much conquered the civilian world, electric vehicles will soon become the backbone of military efforts as well, wherever such a thing is possible. That mostly means in the world of tactical vehicles, for instance, or logistics.

At the time of writing, there aren’t all that many electric military vehicles going around, but that’ll probably change in the near future. And America’s fighting forces want to be at the forefront of that as well.

One way the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) believes it can do that is with help from GM, or more precisely the company’s star battery technology, the Ultium, which it selected this week as suitable for its goals.

First shown a couple of years ago, it already underpins the electric Hummer or the Cadillac Lyriq, and in the coming years will make its way into a larger range of Chevrolets, GMCs, and even Hondas.

“This award is a critical enabler for non-traditional defense businesses like GM Defense to deliver commercial technologies that support our customers’ transition to a more electric, autonomous and connected future,” said in a statement Steve duMont, president of GM Defense.

“Commercial battery electric technologies continue to mature. GM Defense offers a unique advantage with our ability to leverage proven commercial capabilities and the billions in GM investments in electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle technologies in order to help provide our customers with the most advanced capabilities the commercial market can offer.”

For military needs, GM is looking to come up with a scalable design that could be used for a wider range of yet unspecified military vehicles. At the time of writing, we have no details as to what exact vehicles are being planned.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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