Forgive the patriot provoking headline – but yes, it’s true, the US Army will soon have a Canadian company to thank for part of its fleet.
Canada-based Rapid Electric Vehicles has started production of four converted electric bi-directional charging Ancillary Power vehicles that will form part of the US Army Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Centre Micro-Grid Project at Wheeler Air Base in Hawaii. These are light duty fleet vehicles that use power management, mobile communication technologies and proprietary propulsion developed by Rapid Electric Vehicles. They are each propelled by a 125kW permanent magnet AC motor and deliver 300lb-ft of torque.
An order has been made for three Rapid Electric Vehicles 300ACX and one Rapid Electric Vehicle 300AZX. The vehicles are based on the Ford Escape and the Ford F-150 platforms respectively.
The tank programme will see a Micro-Grid designed and built with plug-in electric vehicles to determine the readiness of Micro-Grids to accept power from various inputs while charging the selected vehicles.
Thanks to their control strategies the vehicles can be remotely notified in real-time and store intermittent sources of energy including solar and wind power. This stored electricity can flow in and out of vehicles and power high consumption equipment and buildings.
