REV Building Four Converted Battery-Electric Vehicles for US Military TARDEC Program; Electric Ford Escape and F-150 Vehicles as Part of Micro-Grid Project
24 August 2010
Canada-based Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV) has begun production of four converted electric bi-directional charging Ancillary Power Vehicles (APVs) (earlier post) as part of the US Army Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Center (TARDEC) Micro-Grid project at Wheeler Air Base, Hawaii. The order is for three REV 300ACXs and one REV 300AZX based on the Ford Escape and Ford F-150 platforms, respectively.
APVs are battery-electric light-duty fleet vehicles that combine proprietary propulsion, power management and mobile communication technologies developed by REV. The vehicles are propelled by a 125 kW permanent magnet AC motor and gearbox drive systems that deliver 300 Nm (221 lb-ft) of torque to the wheels.
The TARDEC program will involve the design, build and demonstration of a Micro-Grid with plug-in electric vehicles to determine the technical readiness of Micro-Grids to accept power from various inputs while charging the selected vehicles and provide output power to various applications in both AC/DC. The focus area is efficient power management, renewable energy integration, energy storage and smart charging of plug-in electric vehicles.
As a subcontractor to Honeywell Aerospace, REV has been awarded three contracts and is supplying TARDEC with four 100% electric APVs, four 240V Coulomb ChargePoint charging stations and 200 kWh of stationary energy storage powered by Valence Technology.
Using REV’s control strategies, the APVs energy storage systems can be remotely notified to respond in real-time and store intermittent sources of energy such as solar or wind power. In connection with the use of Micro-Grids, REV’s APVs allow this stored electricity to flow into and out of the vehicles and power high consumption equipment and buildings when connected through the Chargepoints.
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