I love the look of this thing so much. I wish I could buy this as a personal vehicle.
For some reason it gives “The Homer” vibes haha.
U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
151–160 of 503 posts
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
The amount of energy needed to "fast charge" must be immense.
...why is it so much more than the energy required to charge slowly? The battery might get a little warmer while charging, so that's some more waste heat, but the battery gains the same amount of stored energy either way.
You need bigger transmission lines to fast charge. That's expensive. You need to charge enough at the site to justify the line costs.
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#153I see Amazon's electric trucks in Berkeley quite often. I wonder how that fleet is working out for them. Of course the mail in my city is delivered primarily on foot.
One driver recorded a pretty good video of his early experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TFz1xqp3us
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#154I’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.
This ugly look will grow on folks who will nostalgically bemoan going away of these "ugly but trusty/distinctive/unique character/all familiar/" trucks when they are replaced with a new design 10 years down the line.
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#155CNBC had an interesting video about the Tesla semi's that Pepsi Co. is using. I say interesting because it just broadly touches on the project and in certain segments feels more like a marketing puff piece than journalism. Nonetheless still some stuff that can be extracted:
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> electricity prices per mile of transport per ton were about 25% that of fossil fuel prices per mile of transport per ton In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet. > They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well Reduced cap…
The economics of long haul trucking make electrification hard. Fortunately, for local deliveries like the post office, constant stop-and-go means that regen braking can really stretch the range of electric batteries.
This is an assumption without the hard realities to back it.
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet. You charge the mail trucks overnight, when they aren't being driven. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a postman out in the evening or nighttime. I also don't know about you, but I don't stan…
No one is claiming electrification isn't practical for mail delivery vans. The grandparent comments are discussing long-haul trucking.
This a post about USPS delivering? Grandparent comments are off topic
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#158For comparison, Australia Post went with mostly 3-wheel electric bikes for local deliveries (3100 out of 4100 EVs in the fleet mid 2022). https://auspost.com.au/our-stories/inspiring-stories/sustain... there's a photo in the link. The low noise compared to the previous powered bikes is really nice.
Yeah - while it seems easy/logical to just swap a normal delivery vehicle for an electric version of it, you don't really have to do that & electric vehicles do come in many more shapes and sizes due to the might higher flexibility and scalability of the electric power system. For example here in Brno, Czech Republic, the entry to the city center is nowadays quite restrictive for regular cars/vans - a lot of it is a…
For some reason I find it really funny that there are Dominos in the Czech Republic …
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
The amount of energy needed to "fast charge" must be immense.
...why is it so much more than the energy required to charge slowly? The battery might get a little warmer while charging, so that's some more waste heat, but the battery gains the same amount of stored energy either way.
The grid is unreliable and has problems serving base load in rural areas where charging would be needed
Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
The e-trikes replaced old motorcycles with saddlebags. The trike rides up onto the footpath and delivers directly into the mailbox. Usually letters and catalogues. They hop from letterbox to letterbox along the road and footpath. They are coloured fluroscent yellow, same association as high visibility shirts. Packages are done by courier in a van or truck. Grocery deliveries are done by supermarket branded refrigerat…
Yes. Congress required the USPS to be profitable, and then required it to up-front fund its pensions, and then capped the rate they can charge for first-class mail. This created incentives for them to deliver more parcels. One service they offer is "last-mile" service for private parcel carriers; so e.g. FedEx will get it to your city and USPS will deliver to your house. A significant fraction of packages ordered thr…
In turn USPS uses FedEx for international and (maybe not anymore) for overnight deliveries to certain destinations.