With the world's largest vehicle fleet, the U.S. Army is a leading advocate of hybrid and fuel cell vehicles to reduce the amount of fuel it must purchase and transport to vehicles in the field. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and fuel cell vehicles (FCV) are also harder to detect than their diesel-powered counterparts because of their lower visible, thermal and acoustic signatures. Finally, they are better able to provide exportable electric power needed by today's high-tech Army.

One key way to reduce the unit cost of HEVs, or for that matter just about anything, is to build them in large volumes. That's the idea behind the MP Hybrid, a multipurpose platform that is easily configurable for a variety of homeland defense, military and commercial jobs. The MP Hybrid was developed by the U.S. Army's National Automotive Center, in conjunction with Quantum Fuel System Technologies Worldwide, Inc., and California Motors LLC.

According to Alan Niedzwiecki, president and CEO of Quantum Technologies, "the MP Hybrid is not just one vehicle. It is a modular, easily configurable, light-duty platform that allows a fleet purchaser to define requirements, select from a variety of assemblies and features, and custom configure the body and powertrain to best suit their specific vehicle need.