There were quite a few vehicles on display at SOF Week, including several motorcycles. The Ryvid offering caught my eye due to their approach. They offer their electric vehicles as bikes but have developed a Quad concept as well.
This US brand’s base bike is the Anthem which features a clutchless direct drive transmission and a top speed of over 80 mph and range of up to 200 miles per charge.
Submersible up to 1 meter, the bike offers 200 Nm (148 ft-lbs) of max torque from a 50 kW (67 hp) electric motor.
USSOCOM plans to evaluate the bike during the upcoming Technical Experimentation (TE 23-3) event in June.
200 miles per charge and a charge time of…what, exactly?
This and other EVs are logistical nightmares, nothing but graft.
I was curious too, in the website’s FAQs they say 3 hours on 220v and 6 hours on 110v, batteries are removable/swappable but weigh 65lbs so you’re unlikely to be carrying around a spare with you.
“This and other EVs are logistical nightmares, nothing but graft.”
Not true. It just depends on your use case. If you’re towing a large trailer up a steep hill, EV is probably not for you. If you’re taking short trips around town, or maybe ~200 miles with time to charge on the other end, they’re great.
They also shift energy production away from oil to whatever you’re using to make electrons. Where I live, that’s nuclear, coal, natural gas – which means that if you drive an EV you aren’t giving $ to the Saudis, who then give them to ISIS and al Qaeda. That’s pretty important to me.
But I’m also skeptical about military use cases – in an expeditionary environment, the power comes from burning diesel fuel, so you aren’t really getting away from dependence on oil and everything that comes from that (vulnerable logistical supply chain with tanker trucks driving over IEDs or paying protection to the insurgents, etc).
Don’t just say “graft” – work through the details to see what makes sense and what doesn’t.
a silent and fast bike or quad, I see a lot of potential in that for military purposes.
Gas motorcycles have greater range and do not depend on having somewhere to plug in. As stated earlier, the batteries are far too heavy to practically carry them around.
Also, most US fuel imports are from Canada, to the tune of around 60%. Now the Canadians are neo-Fascists for sure, but don’t hypoerbolize the influence of one country while ignoring the rest.
Nevermind that I recall the US being fuel independent only a few years ago. Wonder what happened to that? Oh wait…
The big thing you get here is stealth.
The big thing you get here is more green energy graft. UAVs have already superceded this in pretty much every relevant way.
Ya know, these comments are so enlightening. I guess there’s now zero reason to maneuver on the battlespace because some rando has declared that “UAVs have superseded it.” Whatever the hell that means.
“Nevermind that I recall the US being fuel independent only a few years ago. Wonder what happened to that? Oh wait…”
Gotta check your facts. The US is even more fuel independent than we were only a few years ago. As of November 2022, US crude oil imports fell to the lowest level since 2001, at 1.1 million barrels per day. Much lower than 2017’s high of 7 million barrels per day.
So the rest of the world is increasingly dependent on the US.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-poised-become-net-exporter-crude-oil-2023-2022-12-19/
You two (and I) agree on this. We’ve got a sovereignty problem right now.
Excuse me sir, but your comment gives the perception that you are not completely on board with our carbon-neutral future utopia.
An incident log has been made with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, and sensitivity counselors are being dispatched to your location.
This concept of EV’s on the battle field is completely ridiculous! Maybe a remote or autonomous robot but not a support vehicle for troops. We lost the last remnants of decent leadership in 2009-2012, now we have cucked General officers and marxist civies in all aspects of govt., DoD has been completely compromised our last bastion of supposed apolitical motivation and plans. We are so done!
Not completely ridiculous. Pure fleeting is insanity, but a niche capability of pure EV and hybrid EV systems along with legacy Diesel powered vehicles can provide some advantages.
bring back the diesel klr650!!