In my mind it screams "big for the sake of big", not efficient or environmentally friendly...
Husband wants a Model 3, wife wants 4Runner (or vise versa, point is that they want totally different things), joint bank account wants absolutely nothing to do with either. GM swoops in to save the day by checking the snazzy EV and the practical SUV sets of boxes at the same time at a typical GM price point.
The real nuisance with high elevation is getting enough air over the heat exchangers to not overheat or heat soak the intercooler, air:water would be desirable.
The GM 'consumer' Hummer was basically a pseudo milspec hummer and this new EV version will presumably be a similar marketing effort. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummer_H2
H2 EV is to Cybertruck as used Ford Ranger is to CPO Tacoma. The owners of the latter will turn up their nose at the former if they cross paths at all. They're mostly disparate buyer demographics.
American sustainability: ev hummer
1. Electric vehicles are a terrible fit for military operations
2. The actual HMMWV is a steaming pile of garbage. Not sure why the US Gov would want to buy an expensive version of the same thing
3. The HMMWV was recently replaced by the JLTV - it'll probably be at least 20 years before the next refresh cycle
Electric Malibu: Totally makes sense
Electric Cadillac: Wow, forward thinking!
Electric Corvette: Whoa, world changing
Electric Hummer: But I. But we. Wait. What?
And it competes with the Cybertruck, and they don’t have to worry about a limited amount of space for the batteries. Seems like a good strategy to me, for a first attempt.
That said, an electric hummer could be a perfect fit for the hummer stretch limo market. Though idk if that market is big enough to warrant its own whole thing.
On the other side, the biggest problem with this type of vehicle is 12 inches behind the wheel. They should create a special category of license with extra hours of certified training.
This is the most absurd statement I've read on HN in the past week. Just take 20 seconds and think about the logistics of a 60+ ton tank in the middle of nowhere doing a battery swap.
On the actual power generation side, electric might have an advantage. But the range and recharging story is just too awkward to make sense. I'm not saying never: if battery power density jumped up 10x, they might be able to make it work. Just not right now.
1. Armored vehicles can have enormous gas tanks. The Abrams has a 500 gallon gas tank. If needed, it's pretty easy to double the size of the tank by strapping 10 5-gallon gas cans to the size of the vehicle. I just don't see how current battery technology could hope to compete with that.
2. The vehicle that refuels front line troops is the HEMTT. It carries 2500 gallons of petroleum and can fuel 2 vehicles at a time, maybe 5-10 times faster than a gas station.
That means that these vehicles can drive up to the front lines, fuel up vehicles and leave quickly so that they're less of a target and the front line vehicles can get back to doing what they need to do quickly.
In your generator scenario, you still need the fuel trucks, but there's an additional truck that has to sit there, charging vehicles for a long time.
I just don't see it working.
Absolutely not! A lithium battery is fragile and highly flammable. Diesel is much safer to transport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stridsvagn_103#/media/File:Str...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density#/media/File:Ene...
That's isn't how thermodynamics works.
It could have a reduced thermal signature but infrared cameras are so absurdly sensitive so it isn't obvious to me that a reduction would be a big advantage.
> Potentially redundant drive
Diesel-electric would have the same redundancy advantages: https://oshkoshdefense.com/engineering-solutions/propulse/
> No diesel fuel to catch fire.
Diesel is relatively hard to get to burn as liquid fuels go... lithium chemistry batteries aren't particularly known for being fire free.
But fundamentally, EVs really only work well when vehicles can recharge on a grid. The Military wants to be able to operate away from the grid.
Also, did the military consider hybrid vehicles for similar role? They have the capacity to operate off-grid, and also switch to completely silent when tactically useful.
I want to be up front - I'm far from privy to the military's decision making, which is byzantine and absurdist on a good day.
However, I think I can pretty safely say that the issue is not whether the military assumes that the grid will be off, but rather they don't assume that the grid will be on.
I think the closest they might get is a plug-in hybrid. However, that adds quite a bit of weight and complexity to a vehicle. I honestly don't know one way or the other how well that would work for armored vehicles, which are typically quite a bit heavier than you're probably used to thinking.
For example: homemade armor is typically 1/4" hardened steel plate welded to the outside of vehicles (thin skinned trucks, etc.) - about 2x the thickness of the Cybertruck's body. I'd assume that most purpose built armor kits are even heavier than that.
You wouldn't need huge battery life for a 15 minute performance, so shaving off battery weight might just work. What most people go to see is airborne jumps rather than crushing things hence need for low weight.
