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U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

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Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#41

Post by ThatPlayer »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #17

Where are they going to charge them once a post office has a few? I thought I read somewhere that charging infrastructure is fine for a household but a fleet of 10+ EVs will need significantly more juice (technical term) and hardware to mitigate significant safety concerns.

The answer is gonna be based more on how many miles does a USPS driver drive a day? Average mileage on an EV is about 100 mile for 25 kWh. A standard (lower end) home 100A breaker panel would do about 20kw, enough for 200 kWh overnight, or 800 miles. A commercial site will likely have more than 4x that with at least a 400A panel, 3200 miles.

Some searching brings up 24 miles a day as the average for a postal route. Even if you round up to 50 miles a day per vehicles, a 400A service will do more than 50 vehicles at night. It's not ideal for trucks between facilities, sure. But for neighborhood last mile delivery you wouldn't have that many vehicles per facility, or distance traveled, making it pretty ideal to start rolling out electric vehicles there.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#42

Post by IncRnd »

ceejayoz wrote: post #33
IncRnd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading farther in the article: It also remains unclear where the vehicles and charging stations will be placed, as those details have yet to be finalized, the agency said. So, to answer the GP's question, "Where are they going to charge them once a post office has a few?" Nobody knows.

They're provisioning more chargers than vehicles. The answer seems fairly clear. For now, if you get three EVs at your local post office, I'd expect roughly three chargers installed.

Would you mind quoting the source for that? The article says something else.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#43

Post by ceejayoz »

IncRnd wrote: post #42
ceejayoz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're provisioning more chargers than vehicles. The answer seems fairly clear. For now, if you get three EVs at your local post office, I'd expect roughly three chargers installed.

Would you mind quoting the source for that? The article says something else.

You want a source for "I'd expect"? MLA style?

Me. 1 Mar. 2023. Hacker News, comment #34991363.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#44

Post by waboremo »

IncRnd wrote: post #21
ceejayoz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First paragraph of the article: > The service awarded contracts on Tuesday for 9,250 battery electric vehicles and for more than 14,000 charging stations .

Reading farther in the article: It also remains unclear where the vehicles and charging stations will be placed, as those details have yet to be finalized, the agency said. So, to answer the GP's question, "Where are they going to charge them once a post office has a few?" Nobody knows.

Logically, most of the chargers will be at post offices to accommodate the fleet. Completely negating the question asked.

Outside of the post offices, where will USPS set up additional chargers? That is the unknown right now, if they actually do set up any outside of post offices.

There is significant doubt they would set up chargers outside of post offices, considering they acquired 14k charging stations and have 30k+ offices in service.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#45

Post by IncRnd »

ceejayoz wrote: post #43
IncRnd wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind quoting the source for that? The article says something else.

You want a source for "I'd expect"? MLA style? Me. 1 Mar. 2023. Hacker News, comment #34991363.

No, for the part where you made an assertion of fact. "I'd expect" is your opinion, and you're entitled to that of course. I was asking you to quote where you got the source for "provisioning more chargers than vechicles."

> They're provisioning more chargers than vehicles.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#46

Post by ceejayoz »

IncRnd wrote: post #45
ceejayoz wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want a source for "I'd expect"? MLA style? Me. 1 Mar. 2023. Hacker News, comment #34991363.

No, for the part where you made an assertion of fact. "I'd expect" is your opinion, and you're entitled to that of course. I was asking you to quote where you got the source for "provisioning more chargers than vechicles." > They're provisioning more chargers than vehicles.

It's literally the first paragraph in the article. Scroll up, I quoted it in my original comment too.

> The U.S. Postal Service's plans for a nationwide fleet of electric vehicles are getting closer to being realized. The service awarded contracts on Tuesday for 9,250 battery electric vehicles and for more than 14,000 charging stations.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#47

Post by flavius29663 »

codazoda wrote: post #7

I’ve been wondering what the most repairable vehicle might look like, and I guess the USPS already put a lot of brain power into that problem. I presume this is ugly because it’s both purpose built and highly repairable.

it's ugly for visibility, so they don't have blind spots in front. This has been studied extensively, I can't find the link now

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#49

Post by IncRnd »

ceejayoz wrote: post #46
IncRnd wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, for the part where you made an assertion of fact. "I'd expect" is your opinion, and you're entitled to that of course. I was asking you to quote where you got the source for "provisioning more chargers than vechicles." > They're provisioning more chargers than vehicles.

It's literally the first paragraph in the article. Scroll up, I quoted it in my original comment too. > The U.S. Postal Service's plans for a nationwide fleet of electric vehicles are getting closer to being realized. The service awarded contracts on Tuesday for 9,250 battery electric vehicles and for more than 14,000 charging stations .

If you read more of the article, you will see additional numbers.

  As such, a contract has also been awarded for the agency to acquire 9,250
  commercial-off-the-shelf internal combustion engine vehicles "to fill the
  urgent need for vehicles." In December, the agency said that 21,000 COTS
  vehicles will be purchased and are "expected to be battery electric,"
  but said that depends "on market availability and operational feasibility."

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#50

Post by s0sa »

IncRnd wrote: post #21
ceejayoz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First paragraph of the article: > The service awarded contracts on Tuesday for 9,250 battery electric vehicles and for more than 14,000 charging stations .

Reading farther in the article: It also remains unclear where the vehicles and charging stations will be placed, as those details have yet to be finalized, the agency said. So, to answer the GP's question, "Where are they going to charge them once a post office has a few?" Nobody knows.

Perhaps, like with most complex problems, there isn’t a “one size fits all” solution. I’m all for skepticism but this criticism is just lazy.
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