GM Defense’s new heavy gun carrier variant of its Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), while not yet electric, has the potential to expand the US Army’s electric vehicle fleet, says GlobalData. The leading data and analytics company notes that GM Defense continues to show a commitment to innovation and electrification with the original ISV model swiftly being made electric and its newest model with similar vehicle architecture also showing promise.

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Electric Vehicles (EV) in Defense – Thematic Research’, reveals the potential for the large scale uptake of fully electric and hybrid combat vehicles by Armed Forces globally. Electric and hybrid technologies have numerous benefits against their internal combustion engine counterparts such as reduced thermal and acoustic signatures.

Madeline Wild, Associate Defense Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “GM Defense exhibited notable speed when transforming the powertrain of the original model, so there’s definitely potential for its new variant be electrified or at least be modified to house a hybrid drivetrain.

“While there are presently no orders for the heavy gun carrier, the variant was designed to meet capability requirements set out by the US Army. As such, there is potential for the US Army to expand their growing electric vehicle fleet.”

The prevalence in the development of electric and hybrid military vehicles has been demonstrated through recent defense exhibitions. For example, the UK funded efforts to hybridise the Jackal, Foxhound and MAN SV vehicles, that were on show at DSEI. These vehicles showed significant progress in their development towards being ready for integration into the fleet; the vehicles have been moved into the net phase of testing.