Perhaps you remember the all-electric Silverado (above) we reported on a few months back. The company behind that truck is UQM Technologies, and the Silverado was converted to electric use for the Air Force. UQM also works with the Army, and yesterday announced it has received a "follow-on contract" from the Army's Tank - Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) for further development of an "advanced vehicle propulsion motor for application as a wheel mounted electric propulsion system." The idea is to crank more and more torque from smaller and smaller packages, and UQM thinks that permanent magnet propulsion motors are the way to go. The Army is paying UQM $244,608 (apparently 77 percent of the total cost) for this work. I'm telling ya, stealth motors.

UQM's full press release is after the jump. UQM also works with Phoenix Motors on that company's BEVs and announced PHEVs.

[Source: UQM Technologies, Inc.]

The only new vehicle unveiled at the EDTA conference was the converted Silverado EV, which you probably read about on Tuesday. Since all I had to do was walk on over to the UQM booth for more information on this truck, I didn't miss my chance to learn more about how the Air Force, and now the Army, is looking to make their vehicles greener.

The Silverado on display is a one-of-a-kind vehicle built by UQM in conjunction with the Air Force as a test bed for two technologies: permanent magnet machines and lithium-ion packs, and how they work together. The truck has a 46 kWh pack with 27 Valence li-ion batteries that power a 120 KW propulsion system that offers 650 newton meters peak torque. This power is moved by direct drive to the rear transaxle. The UQM Silverado gets about 150 miles per charge and can do 0-60 in less than 10 seconds, the booth spokesman told me. The truck has bee in the works in Colorado for two years, but only about half that time was spent actually working on the truck. The rest of the time UQM was dealing with contract issue, like threats that the Air Force would cancel the program.

More text and pictures after the jump.