DoD to acquire nearly 93,000 EVs

November 6, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

The United States military is investing heavily in electric vehicles (EV), including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and plug-in electric vehicles (PEV), to capture the economic, environmental, and strategic benefits offered by vehicles that do not run on fossil fuels. One of the largest supporters of various types of alternative drive vehicles, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is expected to increase its purchases of EVs in the coming years. In fact, the DoD will acquire more than 92,400 EVs for non-tactical purposes from 2013 to 2020, according to Navigant Research.

From left, U.S. Navy Cmdr. David Varnerreceives the keys to a Chevrolet Volt electric car from Cmdr. Kenneth Branch as part of the DoD and General Services Administration Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Pilot project. Credit: U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kiona Miller/Released

"In remote theaters of operations, the cost of moving fuels to forward military locations can be a multiple of the cost of the fuel itself," said Scott Shepard, research analyst with Navigant Research. "The military's approach to reducing fossil fuel consumption from non-tactical operations includes acquiring increasing numbers of vehicles powered by ethanol blend and biodiesel blend fuels; but the majority of the investment will go toward HEVs and PEVs."

One particular area of focus for the military market is the development of microgrids in tandem with vehicle-to-grid (V2G)-enabled PEVs. Microgrids can enable bases in both tactical and non-tactical operations to utilize energy generation sources more efficiently and to operate independently of conditions on the grid. V2G-enabled PEVs used solely in non-tactical applications provide an additional layer of energy support and storage that can assist islanding microgrids and balance distributed energy generation resources by providing power from the vehicles' battery packs to buildings, Navigant said.

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