The Hummer has been resurrected as an electrical car, and now its navy counterpart could also be as nicely. General Motors is making a prototype car for the US navy that’s based mostly on the forthcoming Hummer EV in 2022, CNBC stories.
The so-called “electrical Gentle Reconnaissance Car,” or eLRV, will use modified variations of the Hummer EV’s body, electrical motors, and GM’s new Ultium battery pack, although it might not look precisely like the buyer model.
GM resurrected its protection unit in 2017 and mentioned final 12 months that it believes there’s a $25 billion marketplace for creating new autos for the navy, together with EVs. It has already nabbed a $214 million contract to construct infantry squad autos for the Military, together with one model that makes use of elements from the Chevy Bolt EV.
A 2019 research from Brown College calculated that the US navy is the biggest institutional polluter on the earth and produces extra greenhouse gasoline emissions than 140 international locations.
That has impressed just a few different would-be electrical car producers to focus on the navy fleet along with GM. Each Nikola and Lordstown Motors have constructed demonstration autos and pitched them as doubtlessly big strains of enterprise — although neither struggling startup has been in a position to strike a deal.
Whereas GM sees nice alternative promoting EVs to the navy, it doesn’t sound just like the Hummer-based eLRV will turn out to be as ubiquitous as the unique gas-powered Hummer — at the least not immediately. Kathleen Hicks, the deputy secretary of the protection division, instructed CNBC that she believes integrating electrical autos within the navy’s fleet might be “very difficult,” particularly due to charging infrastructure. However, she mentioned, “[e]lectrifying the non-tactical fleet, that’s a no brainer.”
