Re: [EVDL] Will replacement USPS mail-trucks be Electric?
On Mar 21, 2015, at 11:37 PM, Lee Hart via EV ev@lists.evdl.org wrote: Lawrence Rhodes via EVev@lists.evdl.org wrote: This is a report about the program. The average daily use was 10 miles perfect for Lead EV's charged every day. Mark Abramowitz via EV wrote: This seems to confirm the thing that I've heard for years - it's not economical because they go so few miles. Actually, it appears that the vehicles *were* more reliable, and considerably less expensive to operate than their ICE counterparts. That despite all the problems with a limited production experimental vehicle. No doubt operating costs are cheaper. It's the up front capital cost. Lots of miles needed to spread that cost. Also, despite the enormous price quoted for the lead-acid battery (up to $14,000). I wonder what Ford did to come up with that expensive a battery? You can also see the back pedaling by Ford to get out of their EV commitments once the CA ZEV program was rolled back. From what I heard in some cases employees would simply drive the vehicle till it wouldn't go another inch and ask for a tow... That appeared in earlier trials. The employees didn't like the vehicles, and so went out of their way to make them fail... with everything from passive resistance (forgetting to plug it in) to outright abuse and sabotage. But this trial seems to have gone pretty well, without evidence of that sort of abuse. There are some oddities in the data, though. Like some stations that had essentially no problems, and others with massive numbers of problems despite very similar numbers of miles being driven. It's the most recent trial result I've seen, so maybe these vehicles were a lot better developed and matched to the employees likes and dislikes. They were built by Ford and Grumman, who have a lot of experience in getting the various fit and finish details right, so they wouldn't have seemed so alien to the postal workers. Nevertheless, there were lots of problems with things that had little to do with it being an EV. -- We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves. -- George Matthew Adams -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, leeah...@earthlink.net ___ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) ___ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
Re: [EVDL] Will replacement USPS mail-trucks be Electric?
This is a report about the program. The average daily use was 10 miles perfect for Lead EV's charged every day. Lawrence Rhodes ..From what I heard in some cases employees would simply drive the vehicle till it would't go another inch and ask for a tow... http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/avta/pdfs/fsev/usps/fleet/2summarysections1_3.pdf -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20150321/5e34b5a8/attachment.htm ___ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
Re: [EVDL] Will replacement USPS mail-trucks be Electric?
Lawrence Rhodes via EVev@lists.evdl.org wrote: This is a report about the program. The average daily use was 10 miles perfect for Lead EV's charged every day. Mark Abramowitz via EV wrote: This seems to confirm the thing that I've heard for years - it's not economical because they go so few miles. Actually, it appears that the vehicles *were* more reliable, and considerably less expensive to operate than their ICE counterparts. That despite all the problems with a limited production experimental vehicle. Also, despite the enormous price quoted for the lead-acid battery (up to $14,000). I wonder what Ford did to come up with that expensive a battery? You can also see the back pedaling by Ford to get out of their EV commitments once the CA ZEV program was rolled back. From what I heard in some cases employees would simply drive the vehicle till it wouldn't go another inch and ask for a tow... That appeared in earlier trials. The employees didn't like the vehicles, and so went out of their way to make them fail... with everything from passive resistance (forgetting to plug it in) to outright abuse and sabotage. But this trial seems to have gone pretty well, without evidence of that sort of abuse. There are some oddities in the data, though. Like some stations that had essentially no problems, and others with massive numbers of problems despite very similar numbers of miles being driven. It's the most recent trial result I've seen, so maybe these vehicles were a lot better developed and matched to the employees likes and dislikes. They were built by Ford and Grumman, who have a lot of experience in getting the various fit and finish details right, so they wouldn't have seemed so alien to the postal workers. Nevertheless, there were lots of problems with things that had little to do with it being an EV. -- We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves. -- George Matthew Adams -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, leeah...@earthlink.net ___ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
