Great info I wasn't aware of - explains a lot. Sent from my iPhone
> On Jun 29, 2014, at 1:37 PM, Lee Hart via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > > EVDL Administrator via EV wrote: >> It appears to me that EVs have not yet been a success in postal delivery. I >> can't understand why not. Anyone with other (I hope more positive) >> information please post it. > > I have some information on this regarding the US Postal Service's efforts. > > The Post Office itself has always been against the idea. But several times, > Congress has forced them to try pilot EV programs. As you might expect, > politics wound up playing a bigger role than engineering. > > Many of the suppliers had little or no experience building such vehicles. > There were thus serious "teething" problems with all vehicle systems, not > just the EV components (body integrity, safety, brakes, steering, etc.) > > My father was a mail carrier, and a staunch member of the NALC (postal > union). The union was dead set against EVs, and their members often went out > of their way to sabotage the EV pilot programs. > > Nevertheless, some of the vehicles that weren't purposely wrecked performed > well. The EVs from Smith's Electric Vehicles in England did very well, since > they have been building on-road EV delivery vehicles for 50+years. But they > couldn't be chosen because they were "foreign". AM General supplied some DJ5 > Postal Jeep EV conversions that worked exactly like their ICE versions. > However, they already had the contract for ICE postal jeeps, and like every > other auto company, they had zero interest in changing them to EVs. > > -- > The most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing one that > is just good enough. -- Eric S. Raymond > -- > Lee Hart's EV projects are at http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.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) > > _______________________________________________ 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)
