Million-Dollar Army Contracts are a Lifeline for EV and Battery Companies

For some electric car and hybrid companies left out of lucrative Department of Energy grant and loan programs, military contracts are the next best thing. That's been the experience of Indiana-based Bright Automotive, whose CEO John Waters is somewhat anxious that his heartland company, which is fielding the 100-mpg Idea, a plug-in hybrid commercial van that has attracted widespread interest among major fleet customers, has so far been ignored by the DOE.

But on October 26, Bright announced that the U.S. Army's department of Tank Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) is launching a $1.4 million program to test the Idea in non-combat situations. It's interesting that the contract also calls for testing the van in what's known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) situations--in other words, delivering electric power from its batteries back to the grid. V2G is a buzzword among smart grid managers and some automakers, but others say it will put too much strain on fragile EV battery packs.

According to Waters, the aim is to study the possibility of operating off-the-grid military bases from EV batteries--presumably useful in countries such as Afghanistan where forward bases can be remote from the grid. The contract was awarded to a new Bright division called Bright eSolutions, whose aim is jump-starting the use of EV technology by major automakers and suppliers.

According to Waters in an interview, the Idea drivetrain (now in a Dodge Caliber that served as a mule before the first proprietary van was built) will be tested in a military donor vehicle. He estimated that such a vehicle, with 13 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, could provide power to several buildings on a military base for two to three days. The company has been working on the military contract for two years, he said.

The new Bright division is headed by Nigel Francis, a former vice president of vehicle engineering at Mercedes-Benz. "Members of our team have worked on some of the most fuel-efficient vehicles in the world," he said, and we are ready to put that expertise to work for companies that are committed to change." A second Bright division, also ancillary to the main task of launching the Idea, is to convert existing vehicles to plug-in hybrid and EV configuration.

Bright held a Series A fundraising round that reportedly raised $11 million of a $17 million goal by last February. White Pines Partners of Boston was an investor, as was Duke Investments (an arm of Duke Energy).

EnerDel, a battery company not coincidentally located near Bright in Indianapolis (John Waters was an EnerDel founder) has also scored a TACOM contract, in this case $1.29 million to supply batteries for a hybrid version of the Humvee military vehicle. One of the central reasons for longtime interest in a hybrid Hummer is its ability to operate electronics and the traction motor in "silent watch" and "silent mobility" modes without the diesel generator running. That, obviously, aids in avoiding enemy detection by canceling out heat and audible signatures. But hybrids also save a lot of money on fuel in combat zones.

According to Adam Hunt, manager of government programs at EnerDel (the battery division of Ener1, which also supplies Fisker's high-performance plug-in hybrids, the Norwegian-based Think EVs and the Japanese postal service), "The logistics of transporting fuel is very difficult for the military, so if they can get just a few percentage points better in fuel economy it makes a big difference."

Hunt also said that the hybrid Humvee could function in a similar way to the Bright van--as a source of remote power to operate mobile command posts or field hospitals.

Over 18 months, the Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) will test several different EnerDel power systems, including lithium-manganese-spinel batteries (ideal for extending electric range) and lithium-titanate (developed with Argonne National Labs for extreme high-power hybrids needing hard acceleration and braking).

Unlike Bright, however, EnerDel was not left out of DOE financing. The company secured a $118.5 million DOE grant under the federal stimulus program and is awaiting approval of further low-interest loans from the agency.