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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

#291

Post by viraptor »

vallassy wrote: post #271
angry_octet wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know they have to get out to deliver letters and parcels? They have a solution and it's called a rain coat.

I feel like being pedantic for a moment. Our suburban posties don't get off the bike to deliver the letters, they ride up alongside the letterbox and deliver the letters right from the vehicle, as can be seen in the link in the GGP comment. They also deliver small parcels that will fit in a standard letterbox. You are quite right though, as soon as the rain starts, they're in full wet gear. Bright yellow, you can't m…

Photo for reference. If it rains they're ready.

https://kagi.com/proxy/Australia-Post-trials-three-wheeled.j...

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

#292

Post by mcv »

miked85 wrote: post #211

Well that's great, I'll be getting almost 100% junk mail via EV now.

Is paper junk mail still that much of a problem? I hardly receive any (but I've got one of those stickers saying I don't want it), and assumed it had died due to the rise of online advertising.

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

#293

Post by ricktdotorg »

Neil44 wrote: post #278
hbarka wrote: post #226

The mailman stopping and starting the engine at every mailbox is so ridiculously wasteful, not just of energy but also time. That’s an additional 15-20 seconds between mailboxes fiddling with the ignition and transmission. In various neighborhoods I’ve lived in all the mailmen did this. Looking forward to EV delivery trucks to make life easier for the drivers and not having to hear that screeching of the ignition at…

I guess density of housing is a big factor. Where I live they postlady parks her van centrally ish near the post box, collects that then fans out on foot delivering stuff. But some rural roads you've got a long distance between properties.

right. i live in a high-density old building with ~60 apartments. our USPS mailperson generally spends about ~20-30 mins back and forth between their truck and the wall of mailboxes in the building.

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

#294

Post by xbmcuser »

concordDance wrote: post #244
xbmcuser wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar and Wind electric production costs are still dropping by 10-15% a year same for batteries. A lot of people and countries don't realise the electricity revolution that is coming. Cost of production for a lot products will start coming down with cheaper electricity.

Batteries would need an order of magnitude improvement in cost to solve grid storage.

That is what is happening. Non lithium tech for grid storage has started to pick up steam 1/8 to 1/10 the current cost for grid storage will be here by 2030

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

#295

Post by throwaway742 »

globular-toast wrote: post #263
sgt wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like that feature very much since it basically introduces a lag.

It doesn't introduce lag. At least not in a manual car. By the time you've pressed the clutch down and selected a gear the engine will be ready. You can completely forget about it. If you're talking about automatics then maybe you should get a manual if you are so concerned about lag. Engine start/stop might just be your first "don't like it because it's different" thing.

In the US only 2.4% of cars are manual mostly driven by enthusiasts.

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

#296

Post by throwaway742 »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #107
xbmcuser wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar and Wind electric production costs are still dropping by 10-15% a year same for batteries. A lot of people and countries don't realise the electricity revolution that is coming. Cost of production for a lot products will start coming down with cheaper electricity.

They don’t realize it because they don’t get any of the benefits. Electricity costs are rising across the country almost without exception. Meanwhile California is paying other states to take electricity because they generate so much excess power during the duck curve (while simultaneously having rolling blackouts)

I've lived in California for decades and have never experienced a rolling blackout. The only times my power has gone out was because of maintenance, one particularly bad thunderstorm, and drivers crashing into the poles.

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

#297

Post by throwaway742 »

wpm wrote: post #163
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t realize it because they don’t get any of the benefits. Electricity costs are rising across the country almost without exception. Meanwhile California is paying other states to take electricity because they generate so much excess power during the duck curve (while simultaneously having rolling blackouts)

IL also sells off something like 250MW of excess power but it’s just like that all the time since it’s all coming from our nuclear plants.

I wish we would build out nuclear here in CA.

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

#298

Post by manquer »

scarface74 wrote: post #150
manquer wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wouldn’t the market pay the actual value for all the essential things you mentioned if subsidy is not there and rural cost of living goes up significantly? Instead of of subsidizing, we would merely pay for what we consume isn’t that a better deal ? Both you and the farmer get to choose how the money is being spent ?

No, Farming is heavily subsidized worldwide. If the US stopped subsidizing farming unilaterally, it would decimate (for the pedants yes I know decimate means decline by 10%) US farming. Are you saying that we should depend on other countries for food? You think our chip dependency leaves us vulnerable…

Today we are exporting Alfa Alfa as feedstock to global markets from our drought stricken southwest.

The subsidies we are providing has encouraged farming in desserts and is destroying precious water we have . Is depending on another nation so bad compared to that ?

Besides There are other ways to protect industry without subsidies- put a tariff on imports for example .

A tariff would not protect exports however just local consumption, farming subsidies are designed to dump are unsustainably grown produce in global markets not protect the local Industry.

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

#299

Post by comboy »

euroderf wrote: post #240
m4rtink wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Seems like this might be a case for solar panels on-board. Long delivery route, moderate speeds, open road.

From quick search electric car uses 0.15-0.2kWh per kilometer. That's amount of energy you get after delivering 200 Watts for an hour. Let's say you have 2m2 of roof (pretty generous), of very efficient panels in your driving in absolute optimal conditions when they are giving you full power (that's around 200W/m2). No loses on the inverter and such.

So you need to be going at the speed of 2km/h. Well, that's actually not that bad for a postal service. It's assuming absolute optimal conditions, but energy usage is for a typical electric car.

I doubt it would be financially net positive or carbon negative, but the idea is not as crazy as I thought assuming final delivery in medium density sunny urban areas.

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

#300

Post by euroderf »

nine_k wrote: post #290
euroderf wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And after electrical storage capacity is solved, let's work on heat storage capacity. Do I really have to spend ten grand digging up my yard ?

Like, well, home insulation and heat-exchanging ventilation?

In Scandinavia the summers provide loooong days. When it's sunny, there is SUCH a surplus of heat that could (in principle) be captured for wintertime use.
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