UNL engineers receive grant to protect military bases from hostile-driven EVs

Engineers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are working to design barriers that can withstand high-speed collisions from electric vehicles to ensure the safety of military bases.

Thanks to a $2.2 million in funding from the U.S. Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center, the premier research center at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Cody Stolle, assistant director of the Nebraska-housed Midwest Roadside Safety Facility and a research assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, along with his colleagues, will be working to protect entry points of military bases against the specific threats posed by hostile-driven EVs.

The total grant amount is $3.6 million, part of which will also go to research teams at Auburn University, and will spread over four years.

"EVs are a different kind of an animal compared to gasoline vehicles," Stolle said. "While they have many similarities to traditional vehicle counterparts, they’re not the same, and they will change the way that we design roadside hardware."

Compared to traditional, nonelectric vehicles, the battery inside an EV outweighs the engine of a gas-powered vehicle, meaning that the EV itself will often carry hundreds or even thousands of extra pounds in total.

In addition, EVs carry their weight differently, with a lower center of gravity than gas-powered vehicles. That, along with other differences, including faster acceleration, is what the Nebraska team of engineers will be accounting for.

"It is beneficial for all of us to be prepared for a transition of any volume of our vehicle fleet toward electrification," Stolle said, "because it means that we’re going to have to design to accommodate a broader swath of possibilities."