Electric military vehicles market needs more time to mature: Poll

Electrification of vehicles in military offers benefits in terms of both operations and logistics.

Verdict has conducted a poll to assess whether the electrification of military vehicles is going to significantly change the market in the next five years or it would happen in the long run.

A majority 65% of the respondents to the poll opined that the technology will need more time to mature, while 26% voted that electrification will happen in the next five years.

The remaining 9% of the respondents suggested that they don’t know when electrification of military vehicles will happen.

The analysis is based on 206 responses received from the readers of Army Technology, a Verdict network site, for a poll run between 08 October 2020 and 18 January 2021.

Benefits of  military vehicle electrification

The move towards electrification of battlefield, combat and army vehicles is seen as strategic, especially from the logistics point of view. Given that military vehicles need to move through remote areas, maintenance of fossil fuel-powered vehicles is more challenging than electric vehicles. Further, carrying fuel for vehicles run on fossil fuels requires a huge convoy and increases susceptibility towards attacks, especially aerial.

Switching to electric would have battlefield advantages such as lower maintenance overheads. Electric vehicles are less complex mechanically, easier to maintain, and have lower failure rates.

In the short-term, electrification in military may only be limited to secondary systems, while unmanned electric vehicles will become the focus in the long-run.

The transition, however, requires supportive infrastructure such as charging points, apart from a multi-dimensional supply chain.