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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

#61

Post by akira2501 »

photochemsyn wrote: post #32

This will save a lot of money over time. Last time I checked in any detail, electricity prices per mile of transport per ton were about 25% that of fossil fuel prices per mile of transport per ton, and that was three years ago. They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well, at least for the main trunk lines, and for city-wide delivery. Remote rural routes will likely be the hardest to electrify.

> 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 capacity from doing this requires additional vehicle time to haul the same amount of material. This isn't a single factor equation. Plus, over the road drivers sleep in their vehicles, and not always at truck stops. They're only allowed to drive for 10 hours, so it's not always as convenient as you might expect.

Consider the weight of 600 gallons of fuel vs. the reduced hauling capacity from using an electric truck and see why we're a ways away from this yet. Have no fear; though, the moment this is logistically favorable, they will switch.

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

#62

Post by ceejayoz »

IncRnd wrote: post #49
ceejayoz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

"They plan to buy more EVs" can (again, I expect) probably be safely read to include "and the requisite infrastructure to accompany them" eventually.

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

#64

Post by bobthepanda »

akira2501 wrote: post #61
photochemsyn wrote: post #32

This will save a lot of money over time. Last time I checked in any detail, electricity prices per mile of transport per ton were about 25% that of fossil fuel prices per mile of transport per ton, and that was three years ago. They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well, at least for the main trunk lines, and for city-wide delivery. Remote rural routes will likely be the hardest to electrify.

> 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.

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

#66

Post by kube-system »

justanother wrote: post #48

Most American humans and pets know the distinctive sound of an LLV trolling around the block delivering the mail. EVs are Ninja-like by comparison. I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing, but it's gonna be a different world.

EVs are kind of loud these days due to FMVSS No. 141

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/26/2018-03...

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

#67

Post by bobthepanda »

rootusrootus wrote: post #52
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.

I believe the USPS has worst case requirements of 56 kWh per vehicle per day. That's assuming very low efficiency and very long route. Assuming they have 208V 3-phase 200A service then perhaps they charge at the equivalent of 1 vehicle completely each hour. 10 a night is no problem. As a practical matter, most routes are not 70 miles, they're more like 25. And the truck probably gets better efficiency than 800 Wh/mi.

Also, they stop and go constantly, so I would imagine regenerative braking could do a lot of heavy lifting here.

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

#68

Post by Clubber »

psychlops wrote: post #63

There is so little need for a post office any more except as a junk mail delivery system. I'd rather see phase out plans.

There are a lot of remote areas that only the USPS will deliver to because they aren't profit motivated.

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

#69

Post by fortran77 »

maxerickson wrote: post #10
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.

At the moment they actually are buying electric Ford Transits, not the thing pictured at the link. Looks a lot like a van: https://www.ford.com/commercial-trucks/e-transit/

I would love an electric version of the little "Transit Connect" with at least a 200 mile range...

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

#70

Post by p1necone »

akira2501 wrote: post #61
photochemsyn wrote: post #32

This will save a lot of money over time. Last time I checked in any detail, electricity prices per mile of transport per ton were about 25% that of fossil fuel prices per mile of transport per ton, and that was three years ago. They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well, at least for the main trunk lines, and for city-wide delivery. Remote rural routes will likely be the hardest to electrify.

> 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…

> 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.

If the time wasted charging/refueling is super valuable you can fix this by provisioning a few more vehicles than there are drivers, or having hot swappable pre-charged batteries and provisioning a few more of those than there are vehicles. Then your recharging/refueling time drops down to a couple of minutes max because you're either swapping batteries out or hopping in a different truck.

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