The company says it has leveraged it advanced commercial battery and integration expertise to deliver to the Department of Defense partners a technologically advanced battery pack that can be scaled for use on operational military platforms and will set the stage for standardization of energy dense lithium batteries for the US Navy.

This follows DIU’s testing and analysis of Canoo’s proprietary technology since February 2023.

Background. This announcement furthers DIU’s Jumpstart for Advanced Battery Standardization (JABS) program (DoD Prototyping Commercial Batteries To Electrify Future Military Platforms. JABS accelerates “form-fit-function battery standards for defense” by using proven and protected commercial EV battery technologies for military use.

JABS’ focus is on prototyping battery systems based on standardized modules that leverage state-of-the-art technology and manufacturing capabilities. The DoD says that developing a standardized battery module will increase DoD’s demand signal for commercial batteries, reduce barriers for the commercial sector to work with the DoD, and pave the way for future battery advancements to be seamlessly integrated and adopted within military platforms.

In September 2022, DIU issued an award to the first of five vendors, GM Defense, to develop a battery pack prototype for testing and analysis on DoD platforms. The company will leverage their most advanced commercial battery technology to ultimately deliver a scalable design that can be used for tactical military vehicles and inform a standard integration pathway for like technology.

In December 2022, Inventus Power received a contract award to develop battery module prototypes for testing and analysis by the DoD. The company will leverage its expertise in Li-ion battery technology along with its extensive experience working with mission-critical military and defense applications as well as xEV motive power to provide an advanced modular solution that meets the necessary requirements for powering tactical military vehicles.

In January 2023, additional vendors were added to the project. Lucid was issued an award to develop battery module prototypes for testing and analysis by DoD. The company will leverage deep expertise in high-voltage battery systems for electric passenger vehicles to deliver modular and scalable battery modules that will be characterized and tested for integration in electrified tactical military vehicles.

Canoo Technologies was issued an award to develop a battery pack prototype for testing and analysis on DoD platforms. The company will leverage their most advanced commercial battery technology and integration experience to deliver a building block that can be scaled for use on tactical military vehicles and will inform future strategies for standardizing integration of like technology.

In February 2023, Delta Cosworth was issued an award to develop a high-performance modular battery system, based on their CSM (Cylindrical Scalable Module) architecture, for evaluation. Cosworth’s CSM can enable an extensive amount of differing battery pack configurations with the same fundamental building block.

Canoo. Canoo’s proprietary battery system is modular and offers performance features supporting various military applications and configurations. Designed for flexibility, modularity, and compatibility, Canoo’s battery system is future-proofed in its capability to incorporate the latest advancements of battery technology.

Canoo has a battery module manufacturing facility at MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor, Oklahoma, within the Cherokee Nation. In phase one, the new facility will create more than 200 advanced manufacturing jobs. In addition, Canoo will be the first technology company to produce battery modules and packs primarily using hydro and wind power sources from the Grand River Dam Authority based in Oklahoma.

Canoo says that the DIU partnership expansion further validates Canoo’s technological and operational reliability as a select partner for some of the USgovernment’s most demanding projects, such as: Delivering the Light Tactical Vehicle (LTV) to the US Army and supplying Crew Transportation Vehicles (CTVs) to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Artemis lunar landing missions.