It's been done before
Posted on 09/08/2009 7:41:49 AM PDT by wrrock
The Office of the Inspector General released a 23-page report titled ‘Electrification of Delivery Vehicles;’ and concluded that since electric cars (like the Chevy Volt) can go up to 40 miles before recharge, the electrification of their delivery vehicles is possible. They just need government funding to tackle this expensive project.
(Excerpt) Read more at cardealerreviews.org ...
“Government Motors”
It's been done before
I don’t know that electric delivery vehicles would work for the USPS. In my neighborhood the carriers park and walk their routes. I could see electric vehicles for UPS, FedEx, et.al., however. They’re constantly starting and stopping their delivery vehicles and I’ve always wondered how that plays on the motor. An e-vehicle would, however, have a diminished range due to a higher load on a parcel delivery vehicle. They’d have to do the math to see if it’s cost-effective.
Now we just have fascist economics. The government supplies capital to friends in industry. The government alters rules and regulations to help some businesses and hurt other businesses. Corporations and unions throw political support to the government in return for these economic favors. One hand washes another, and the powerful people -- both inside and outside of government -- all wear smiles on their faces. While the people wear a boot on theirs.
Let's see how that works.
More Journalistic Illiteracy: What is meant is “bail out,” not “bailout.”
Ford Transit Connect (which is here on dealer lots now). will have an all electric version with the conversion done by Smith.
With a 100 mile range and what I think might be a much lower price point, the Volt will have some serious competition from this entry as well as it is a natural to carry mail instead of a passenger car.
And wait till' us tea-party types demand a more cost effective solution, he he, bring some popcorn!!!
Also go here:
They have more torque and regenerative breaking. Vs. an Idling engine, it is natural. Note, the Ford Escape uses a “Miller” Cycle Engine which does not have low end torque, why, the electric drive train is filling that slot below when the engine kicks in.
Gosh! 40 whole miles. Why, I could make it to work if I only had a two mile long extension cord to make it all the may!\
Until electric cars can go 200 miles and recharge in 2 minutes they will remain merely a heavily subsidized curiosity.
Thme for USPS to get bicycles.Remember the complaints the post office received about people standing in line to long well the thinkers at the P.O. just removed the clocks logic ya gotta love it.
There’s a hydraulic drive-train that is supposed to be quite efficient for vehicles in the package-delivery role like UPS, and all that.
Moderator, can you please pull this from the banglist? Someone keeps cluttering up the banglist with useless threads. Thanks.
Why is this in Banglist?
yep.
Building an electric car that can go 200 miles is easy, it's just a matter of packing more batteries in it. Heck, you could (theoretically) fill up an 18 wheeler with batteries and get all the mileage you want from them. I wouldn't want to try it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
The problem is "how to deliver a massive amount of energy to said batteries in a method that is stable, safe, and fast". Best idea that I've heard is a "battery swap out" where instead of getting fresh charge, you pull out the old, dead batteries and put a new, freshly charged one in.
Not sure how that would happen, though, since they weigh 100s of pounds and cost 1000s of dollars. We're not talking a couple of 'D' Cells, here. :-)
A typical lead acid battery might weigh 50 pounds per horsepower-hour of stored energy. So the limiting range is how far your motor can haul 50 pounds burning 1 horsepower hour. Beyond that, you're going to need a battery type that stores more energy per unit mass or a more efficient motor/drivetrain/less wind resistance, etc. Those technologies obviously are being heavily researched, but for any given battery and motor technology, there is an absolute maximum range, which can only be achieved when the vehicle is all battery and motor.
You’re talking thousands of AA cells
The USPS has a history of falling for “green” boondoggles. The use of “flex fuel” vehicles burning a 10% ethanol gasoline blend caused them to use 1 million gallons more gasoline because of the decrease in gas mileage inherent with ethanol blends. Using Chevy Volts will be a similar costly mistake. Imagine the cost of new electrical wiring at postal facilities to make recharging stations. I can’t wait to hear the horror stories when the weather gets cold and these vehicles are grounded.
The point is not whether electric cars are feasible.
But whether Taxpayer Money will be used by Government Mail to buy Taxpayer-Subsidized Government Motor’s products.
Quit abusing the ‘banglist’ keyword.
I suppose that I was just taking the case to an absurd extreme (towing a tractor-trailer filled with batteries just to move a car around).
I've read some interesting articles on ways they're working to increase battery storage without increasing weight - carbon "foam" is one of them - but like I said, the problem of delivering what truly is a massive amount of power safely, simply and securely to the batteries remains.
But even before all of that occurs.....we need to upgrade the existing infrastructure just to generate the power. You can have the most efficient electric car in the world, but if nothing happens when you plug it in to charge, all that it's good for is a shiny driveway ornament.
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