USPS sued by states and environmental groups over purchase of 8.6 mpg trucks
I feel like this is such low hanging fruit. As the public, I think it’s fair to push “publicly owned” services to be at the bleeding edge of new technology, especially when it could have a high impact.<p>It seems like a USPS route is an awesome fit for EVs:
- It can charge overnight at the facility<p>- it goes pretty slow most of the time, with a lot of stop and go. No need to go super fast, have excellent aerodynamics, or fancy features.<p>- emissions wise, 8.6mpg is really, really bad.<p>- cost wise, paying for gas for 8.6mpg trucks is really, really bad.<p>- No need for an extreme range. Just driving slowly around city&#x2F;town blocks shouldn’t take that much energy.<p>- Lower maintenance burden for something that gets used every single day should save money.<p>- More space in the truck for packages because there’s no engine.<p>All of these together mean that a USPS EV doesn’t have the big concerns that normal consumers might have:<p>- No charging at home or at a rental place.<p>- No charging where they need to go. (USPS truck would have a static route, always in range of its home charger)<p>- Crazy features high-tech cars might have. (Can be super basic.)<p>So all in, I don’t get why they wouldn’t do this. I just can’t see a world where an EV is more expensive than a gas truck. Even if it’s a bit more up front, they have to save a ton over time with fuel and maintenance savings.<p>And it doesn’t even seem like range would be a problem on the vast majority of routes. I’m trying to think of an extreme route length, and it can’t be more than 100mi, right? That seems crazy high, and is also super low as far as EV range goes these days.<p>So what gives?