USPS, Congress moving forward with electric vehicle plan

[Anto]

Link

Old news: that the USPS has used electric vehicles (EVs) since at least 1899.
Newer news: that Congressman Jose Serrano introduced a bill – called the American Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Act or "e-Drive" (H.R. 4399) last December for the USPS to use a fleet of 20,000 electric delivery vans and to get a network of 24,000 charging stations (with more to come). There is a summary of the bill here (PDF).
Newest news: there are things being done behind the scenes to push EVs into the fleet sooner rather than later.

This week, during the Washington Auto Show, EV advocates are holding meetings with Congressional staffers about this very issue. The e-Drive bill just got a new website, which gives people who aren't in D.C. a way to support the bill and to contact their Representatives and Senators to voice that support.

We haven't heard much about the all-electric USPS minivan that Chrysler displayed last Earth Day recently, but that doesn't mean that the Postal Service is standing still. AC Propulsion and a company called AutoPort will be converting a traditional USPS Grumman LLV, the "long live vehicle" that is the standard mail truck used around the country, to electric drive. The test vehicle will use AC Propulsion's AC-150 drive system and have a range of up to 300 miles at 60 mph.

[Koz]

Better late than never. The urban delivery routes should have been one of the first markets approached more than a decade ago. But why 300 miles range for USPS? Seems a bit overkill. Start with the shortest routes.

[Anto]

Better late than never. The urban delivery routes should have been one of the first markets approached more than a decade ago. But why 300 miles range for USPS? Seems a bit overkill. Start with the shortest routes.

300 miles per charge make no sense. 100 mpc delivery trucks would be more than sufficient in urban delivery routes.

If the USPC would purchase the delivery trucks with a less charge range than 300 mpc, the purchase cost of the delivery trucks should be less, but than again when the government gets involved you never know.

[George S. Bower]

I hope the USPS has better luck w/ AC propulsion's motor controller than Tesla did!