Military, Police & Security 15% of Electric Vehicle Market in 2021

Monday 23 May 2011, Amsterdam

Even excluding regular cars minimally modified for such use and the huge development contracts, the projections show a strongly rising market for military, police & security vehicles that becomes around 15% of the total electric vehicle market in 2021, primarily due to the high prices attracted by the specialist construction involved.

Although the bulk of this demand will be for military vehicles on land, the water and air borne applications will each become businesses of well over one billion dollars yearly within the decade. These conclusions are based on the new market research available on electric vehicles in the military, police & security market.

Interestingly, unmanned operation is very important, particularly for water craft and aircraft. Both hybrid electric and pure electric drive trains will be deployed in large numbers. Huge numbers of micro and nanobots will be deployed for surveillance and other military tasks making countermeasures almost impossible. Many of these will fly. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles AUVs and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles UAVs are an even more important part of this story and all are driving a rapid change in technology of parts and powertrains as is explained in many summary tables and text in the report. For instance, multi-mode energy harvesting is being increasingly deployed.

Although most of the development, manufacture and purchase of these vehicles is in the USA, unique advances in Singapore, Korea, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and New Zealand are explained including those for dual purpose civil and military applications, often where the civil application first pushes the boundaries of what is possible.