Many are having a snit fit, just like Sheldon (who doesn’t seem to own an EV himself and takes lots of fossil fueled flights to and from D.C., as well as over to climate change meetings)
We can put astronauts on Moon. We can put rovers on Mars. Please don’t tell me we can’t put great new purpose-built EVs in USPS.
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) February 5, 2022
I mean, we could, but
(Jalopnik) The U.S. mail truck is something of a cultural institution, so the U.S. Postal Service’s job of replacing it with a modern alternative is a tough challenge. Now, the agency says it will cost an extra $3 billion to make those new mail trucks run on electricity.
Hey, what’s an extra $3 billion for them? Pocket change, right? It might be fine for urban mail carriers, but, not out in rural areas, or even spread out suburbs.
The USPS said that any electric truck should be able to cover 70 miles on a single charge. This, it said, would be sufficient to cover around 95 percent of its routes.
The truck should also be capable of carrying a payload of 2,207 lbs and pack in a 94 kilowatt hour battery, which can be fully charged overnight. If a truck that meets these demands can be built, the USPS has pledged to make “at least 10 percent” of its new fleet electric.
But, there is that whole cost thing. And, can they last as long as fossil fueled ones? Warmists are upset that USPS could have the fossil fueled ones for 20 years. How long would an EV one last? Quite frankly, I’m not sure why they didn’t consider a regular hybrid one. Because, in fairness, these gas powered ones get garbage MPG, about 8.6 with AC. 14.7 without. The constantly short drives and idles crush fuel economy. If you drove a route with your Civic or Corolla you’d be getting garbage MPG, as well. What would this kind of usage do to a pure EV range in practice?
A full BEV fleet would “require over $1 billion more in additional investment” the report warned. This would cover the cost of the vehicles, training, manuals, charging infrastructure and 20 years-worth of fuel and utility costs.
As such, a fully electric postal fleet would cost $11.6 billion over 20 years. In contrast, a fleet comprising 10 percent electric trucks and 90 percent newer ICE models would cost $9.3 billion over the next 20 years.
Have fun with EVs in the snow and cold. And hot.
BTW, they are ugly, and those windshields have to cost a lot to replace.
My younger daughter worked for the USPS for a year, in Versailles, Kentucky, and she has said, many times, that the mail trucks at that Post Office were garbage. They were in horrible shape, and there were many times where she had to deliver the mail in her personal car, because there wasn’t an operational mail truck for her.
After thirty years running concrete plants, I know the reason: when vehicles are passed around from driver to driver, you have people who don’t understand the individual quirks of the vehicle, people who don’t write up needed repairs, and maintenance sucks. The Postal Service being a government corporation, they mechanics there are probably not the greatest, either.
Plug in electrics actually should be simpler mechanically, but who knows if they actually will be?
One over-tired postman who forgets to plug in his vehicle to recharge overnight, and that vehicle is out of service the next day.
Since there’s no engine idling in a plug-in electric at stops, EVs just might be the ideal vehicle for the Post Office . . . if they are properly maintained.
Our esteemed host suggested that hybrids might be a better choice, but I disagree. The gasoline engine in a hybrid stops when the vehicle stops, and that could mean literally hundreds of gasoline engine starts per shift. A hybrid Postal Service truck on a rural route could easily have as many engine starts in two days as a gasoline powered one gets in a year. I remember driving a diesel-powered BMW in Italy, and the engine shut off every time I braked to a full stop. I remember stop-and-go traffic on the S2 — Italy’s version of a limited access highway — between Siena and Firenze, and thinking, “How often to Italians have to replace starters in their cars?” If your starter fails in the US, you’re stuck wherever you last parked; if your starter fails in Italy, you might well be in the middle of the S2!
Dana almost all new cars hybrid or not shut the engine off when at a full stop.Ford has this on all models since 2013 it is called a stop start system it can provide significant gas mileage benefits.
I’ve had my F-150 for 4647 days. Assuming that I started it an average of four times a day — and that’s probably a bit high — the original starter has been engaged 18,588 times. If a new vehicle starter is engaged thirty times a day, due to stop and start driving, it would hit that number in 619.6 days, or less than two years.
All machines break eventually, and there’s no maintenance on a starter. I don’t know about you, but I think it a real safety hazard to break down in the middle of the road because the starter failed.
Until I looked at the check which said $5381, I be certain …that my best friend like they say really bringing in money in there spare time from their computer.. there mums best friend started doing this for under 10 months and just now cleared the morgage on their apartment and purchased a new Alfa Romeo.
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Been there; done that….
https://motoringpicturelibrary.com/index.php/mpl_images/1947-brush-pony-electric-milk-float
The personal behavior of 1% of the U.S. population results in their CO2 footprint being 50 times that of the average of the other 99%. Were this small group to only emit 25 times the CO2 of everyone else, overall U. S. CO2 emissions would immediately, not over years or decades, decline 17%. Oddly the people are never told this fact. Maybe because so many of the AGW scammers are part of this small group?
Until I looked at the check which said $5381, I be certain …that my best friend like they say really bringing in money in there spare time from their computer.. there mums best friend started doing this for under 10 months and just now cleared the morgage on their apartment and purchased a new Alfa Romeo.
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I have fleet management experience as well and Dana is correct about maintenance and operator issues with fleet vehicles. Since we are speaking of a government operation; yes I am aware of the “independence” of the USPS, just look at the tag on a mail vehicle; we can expect mediocre maintenance and operator indifference as a generality. For the number of vehicles we are discussing, a purpose built hybrid would probably be impractical due to development costs [we are speaking of a government contract after all]. A pure EV might work as there are several prototype vehicles being developed. I’m personally partial to the Rivian ‘skateboard’ concept. Disclosure, I am invested in Rivian, partially due to issues like this.
I would suggest that people look at what UPS, FedEx, and Amazon are doing with their fleets. Most are relatively conventional vehicles adapted to markets and service use albeit with good maintenance and careful driver training and supervision.
By the way, my new vehicle has the ‘auto stop / start’ feature, I’ve used it and disabled it and noticed no significant difference in mileage. It is rather innocuous, so I’m currently leaving it enabled. Hairy, as far as all Fords since 2013, my 2015 Lincoln had no indication of the feature. Maybe it wasn’t quite ready for prime time in 2015.