The USPS has finally announced its selection for new vehicles to replace the nearly 35 year old LLV design. Not surprisingly they are MUCH larger. They appear to be at least the size of a typical UPS delivery vehicle. This is no surprise since the USPS delivers far more parcels today than they did in the 1980s.
USPS awarded the contract to Oshkosh, WI, based Oshkosh Defense. Recall that the LLVs were manufactured by Grumman, also a defense contractor, using a GM chassis and running gear. I see nothing in the news release concerning who will supply the chassis and running gear for the new vehicle, nor do I see anything about its intended lifespan. The post office news release also says nothing about efficiency. Wikipedia says that the current LLVs average a pitiful 10mpg! The stop and go duty that most of them carry out surely hurts their fuel efficiency, but that's the use that EVs live for. IMO there's no reason for any significant number of the new postal vehicles to be fuel-powered. However, all the news release says is that "The vehicles will be equipped with either fuel-efficient internal combustion engines or battery electric powertrains and can be retrofitted to keep pace with advances in electric vehicle technologies." Anybody want to guess how many EVs the USPS will order? Based on their history with EVs, I'd guess maybe 20% if we're lucky, but I'm a congenital pessimist. https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0223-multi-billion- dollar-modernization-of-postal-delivery-vehicle-fleet.htm https://v.gd/v9EQGl Photo, and a little more info about the contractor, are on this page: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/oshkosh-defense-to-supply-new-usps- vehicles/ar-BB1dWUZQ https://v.gd/FgDYGB David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -- Voltaire = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
