GM Defense to Help the Military Store Battery Power

The Department of Defense is contracting with GM Defense to find ways to store battery power in remote locations. The ultimate goal is to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels but also make the military more agile in responding to remote and dangerous areas.

The Department of Defense Innovation Unit has hired GM Defense to create an energy storage unit. The unit could be deployed to remote and dangerous locations to provide power for vehicles and other equipment. The energy storage unit would use technology developed in GM’s Ultium Battery platform but on a much larger scale. According to a GM Defense statement: “GM Defense will leverage GM’s advanced electric vehicle propulsion architecture, the Ultium Platform, to deliver a scalable and adaptable energy storage unit that supports the tactical energy requirements of the warfighter.” The energy storage unit could power everything from “command and control, communications, radar and weapons systems in remote areas or where a stable power grid is absent.” The DoD wants the energy storage system to work with all types of energy supplies including: hydrogen-powered generators, stationary and mobile battery electric power or existing fuel-powered generators to support efficient power management and distribution. “This contract award demonstrates our ability to leverage advanced commercial technologies and investments from our parent company, GM, to reduce warfighter fuel consumption, and lower acoustic and thermal signatures, while providing efficient energy at the tactical edge,” says Steve duMont, president of GM Defense. “We are proud to win another contract award with DIU, whose mission to accelerate the adoption of commercial technology across the U.S. military aligns with our efforts to transition global defense and government customers to a more electric, autonomous and connected future.” GM Defense Building on Previous Commitments GM Defense won its first contract award from DIU in the fall of 2022 to provide a prototyping battery system based on GM’s Ultium Platform in support of the Jumpstart for Advanced Battery Standardization (JABS) project. Since winning the JABS award, GM Defense has expanded its work under the contract to include installing high-voltage battery packs into the military’s specially designed Multi-Mission and Logistics vehicles. Those Multi-Mission Infantry Squad Vehicles are based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 pickup trucks. Once GM Defense creates the mobile energy storage units, they may be used to support the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) program. This would be GM Defense’s first program with the USMC since relaunching the Defense subsidiary in 2017. GM Defense Photo Mary Conway is a professional automotive journalist and has decades of experience specializing in automotive news analysis. She covered the Detroit Three for more than twenty years for the ABC affiliate, in Detroit. Her affection for the Motor City comes naturally. Her father ran a gas station while Mary was growing up, in Wisconsin. Follow Mary Conway at @maryconwaymedia and send her car news tips for future stories.