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1

DigestibleAntarctic t1_j10i05e wrote

I know what this means, but I’m imagining the mail trucks having a field of electricity around them so no one can touch them.

162

TheSpitfire93 t1_j11p3kl wrote

They are just going to play "you're the one that I want" on a loop everywhere they go like Grease powered ice cream van.

13

Top_Wop t1_j12ef3w wrote

It's good to see Biden overcame the DeJoy problem.

21

ryxriot t1_j12f9yj wrote

Biden taking it to Such Great Heights.

7

Gaff1515 t1_j12hem0 wrote

This is funny because current postal trucks have emissions exemptions. Aka they don’t need to pass emissions. Idk how this has been ignored for so long

10

poplglop t1_j12kjnh wrote

Listen man, I work for the government and there is no fucking way all 232,000 US postal trucks are going to be converted into EVs by 2026.

The actual article says all NEW PURCHASES of postal vehicles will be EVs by 2026, which imo still sounds far fetched, but makes a little more sense.

101

nebulasleuth t1_j12kl6g wrote

That's good news. Now we just need to address the ecology of lithium battery production and our use of fossil fuels to charge all the batteries. Not sure of the 2022 number but I think the 2021 number was something like 60% of the energy produced in the USA was either coal or natural gas.

5

Seacabbage t1_j12qqc5 wrote

Replying to poplglop (#991,835)

I was gonna say, there’s thousands of those shitbox mail trucks on the road that look like they were built in 1980. No way they are all getting replaced in 4 years

28

Lord_Metagross t1_j12rttn wrote

Replying to nebulasleuth (#991,836)

While it's true that a significant portion of our power grids energy comes from natural gas, it's also true that power plants are far more efficient at turning fossil fuels into usable energy than a car, which spits most of its produced power out the tail pipe (heat).

In other words, even if 100% of our power grid was fossil fuel based, by producing the power in plants instead of in your cars engines, it would still be a net positive for the environment as less fuel would be used to power said cars.

We do need to find better battery types than lithium while this transition happens, however.

15

FleetyMacAttack t1_j12vqy5 wrote

I'm curious how much this will affect things in colder areas of the country. With the current drop in range for lithium batteries in cold weather, I wonder if they'll need longer delivery hours/more trucks. 12% isn't massive, but it's definitely an extra trip or two to the charging station, depending on routes.

2

bareboneschicken t1_j12x8l6 wrote

This is the ideal use case for electric vehicles. These vehicles start the day and end the day at the same location.

19

alexr_tk t1_j130ce6 wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#992,428)

Like, if I managed to electrify a large organization's fleet of gas trucks, I would be proud of what I did. I'd be like "eeyyy, good job me."

Even if there were other difficulties, like the say the head of that organization being a fascist who would like to destroy the USPS.

One thing at a time, y'know?

1

Phalex t1_j132cry wrote

Climate win for Biden? Climate win for the world.

6

SkyNightZ t1_j13elkn wrote

Replying to poplglop (#991,835)

Yeah, i watched a video a while back about the procurement process for these electric vehicles and it seemed like some dude essentially abusing the system and getting government contracts to produce ineffective vehicles vs converting off the shelf solutions.

1

aitorbk t1_j13gi2z wrote

Replying to poplglop (#991,835)

Also means new contracts.. they have a long long contract with some incompetent ppl to make them extremely inefficient vehicles at great cost. And they are gas.

3

SickBurnBro t1_j13oltp wrote

The tour with Death Cab and now this. What can't The Postal Service do.

2

PavlovsGreyhound t1_j13wa6t wrote

Dejoy'll be out there jamming knives in tires & causing "accidental" battery fires until they switch back to gas/diesel

10

SXOSXO t1_j144427 wrote

Won't that kill the driver?

1

MasterOdd t1_j149lim wrote

I love this idea but government is so capable of screwing this shit up

4

Top_Wop t1_j14fxdw wrote

Replying to ridicalis (#993,521)

DeJoy is just going along with Biden because he knows Biden is still working on replacing him. Biden has to get enough of his people on the board to throw his ass to the curb. He's as qualified to be Postmaster General as I am. Which is zero.

4

IlikeTrains13579 t1_j14hjki wrote

I'm just over here wondering why they made the trucks even uglier than before. Is this an anti theft measure, or do they just hate postal workers?

1

words_of_j t1_j14kbuk wrote

What do you mean, win for Biden? This is under his presidency but it’s a WIN for the US, and to a lesser but still notable extent, the world (long term). Will become a huge savings in $ too, as compared with the no longer needed fuel and oil cost savings over time.

A quick search returns this: “208,000 vehicles drive more than 1.1 billion miles each year, using 114.3 million gallons of fuel…”.

I left off the estimated fuel cost from that quote because it’s clearly wrong - gasoline doesn’t cost less than a dollar per gallon.

So yes the electricity cost will be nontrivial for 200k vehicles, but still a fraction of the cost of gas or diesel, per mile. And the cost of maintenance will also be a tiny fraction of petroleum powered vehicles, because electric cars need no oil changes, transmission service and fluids, radiator services, etc. they will need service still of course, but the machinery of electric powered cars is dramatically simplifier than internal combustion powered cars.

All this is an enormous win for US taxpayers, for the long term effects on global climate, and for building and optimizing the electric car industry.

YAY!

3

T1mely_P1neapple t1_j14kpqy wrote

finding out in WI here batteries dont work in the cold. 50% less range and 2x longer to charge. FTL.

0

TyFighter559 t1_j14nbci wrote

This is great and forward thinking and all, but until we get a stronger, reliable, sustainable source of energy (more nuclear plants or big leaps in the Fusion tech announced a couple weeks ago), then the net benefit of this will be limited.

1

odog9797 t1_j14ns0p wrote

How is the burden of electric cars and their batteries and lack of repair infrastructure a win for Biden? There’s already acres full of out of service postal vehicles

−2

12kdaysinthefire t1_j14o7k1 wrote

How can I get one of their old mail trucks once they dump them all

1

ialsoagree t1_j14pk7t wrote

Replying to Gadgetman_1 (#993,723)

Many EVs link their motor and battery coolant loops.

You can actually get the battery warmed up fairly quickly when your stator is regularly getting over 100-200 degrees C and you're feeding that heat into the battery.

1

ialsoagree t1_j14q0qw wrote

Replying to T1mely_P1neapple (#996,533)

Batteries warm up as driven. Heat from the motors, which can get over 200C, is fed into the battery.

In 10-15 minutes of driving, a cold soaked battery will be warmed to and back to 100%.

3

Iz-kan-reddit t1_j14qtx3 wrote

Replying to odog9797 (#996,761)

>How is the burden of electric cars and their batteries and lack of repair infrastructure a win for Biden?

How is the burden of being so ignorant on you?

>There’s already acres full of out of service postal vehicles

Yes, because they're 40 years old.

0

changerofbits t1_j14ucb0 wrote

Thank god. Those 70s era technology delivery vehicles don’t even meet todays emission standards. Simply moving to a modern small SUV would help a lot. Given the predictable daily usage, stop-and-go way these things are driven, electric is a perfect solution.

1

CitationX_N7V11C t1_j14zkjk wrote

Replying to aitorbk (#993,586)

You do realize that just because you say something it doesn't make it true, right? The Grumman LLV that the Post Office still mostly uses is up there with the B-52 in longest lasting government procurements. Not to mention that I don't know if you really know who Grumman used to be. One thing it definitely was NOT was incompetent. Even with all it's flaws the longevity of the fleet is a huge success.

2

aitorbk t1_j151rfn wrote

Replying to CitationX_N7V11C (#997,721)

I perfectly know about the amazing heritage of Grumman, plus the issues that the LLV being long in the tooth is causing to the Post Office, including not being appropriate for all weathers. A mixed bag, good and bad.

But we are certainly not talking about the LLVs, we are talking about the either incredible incompetence of assigning the contract to Oskosh or also quite surprising ammount of corruption in doing so.
I suggest you read about how they won the contract for electric vehicles while not delivering them and increased the weight to avoid minimum efficiency etc etc. All on Transits that could have been bought for a fraction of the cost.

But this is UpliftingNews, so the good news is, new contracts will be 100% electric, .

1

seriousbangs t1_j1521u6 wrote

Wait, does this mean that postal workers will have to wear rubber suits?

1

sp8rks t1_j152kgg wrote

Inconvenient truth here is that CO2 emissions for EVs can be comparable to gas vehicles. Uncertainties are very large. Whereas gas vehicles emit primarily during operation, EVs emit primarily during battery and vehicle fabrication.

1

BrokeAzzTeacher t1_j155y56 wrote

Post office is already broke. Government will be paying for this.

0

Sunshinexpress t1_j159ykt wrote

Replying to bareboneschicken (#992,622)

This really is the ideal use case for electric vehicles. In addition to being able to have dedicated charging stations where they're parked, they stop-go-stop-go all day. Being able to recover a lot of that braking energy is a huge efficiency boost.

2

ialsoagree t1_j163gk5 wrote

Replying to T1mely_P1neapple (#1,000,994)

I've owned a Tesla through 4 winters - including temperatures in the negative teens.

Yes, you can go out to your car and have 50% of the battery reserved.

By the time you've used 10-20% of the battery, it is now fully unlocked because it has warmed up.

Maybe there are inexperienced EV users who don't realize their batteries warm up by driving making complaints (this is the first time any F150e owner has ever had their truck in winter) but they will soon learn that it's a non-issue.

You can't possibly consume 30-40% of your car's battery and NOT warm the battery up. Your motors generate too much heat, it has to go somewhere or the motor will melt into slag.

3