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USPS set to buy Canoo electric vans (electrek.co)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Electric van manufacturer Canoo announced a highly visible deal with the United States Postal Service (USPS), which will see the USPS acquire a handful of right-hand drive versions of the company’s LDV 190 delivery van.

Canoo announced that the USPS will purchase six (6) battery-electric Canoo vehicles. In its official press release, the company said that it was “honored” to participate in the post office’s evaluation of potential suppliers as the USPS moves towards the “groundbreaking electrification and modernization” of its national delivery fleet.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

The LLV is all chunky aluminum panels, chunky switches, overbuilt engine, beefy drivetrain (especially when it only needs to handle 90hp), etc. They're far from efficient or well packaged but they're basically indestructible and if something does break it's a piece of cake to swap it out.

The Canoo is pretty much the opposite. It makes way better use of materials and packaging but as a result it's not overbuilt to the same degree. It's almost certainly designed around being a passenger car which only need to survive ~100k miles before things are allowed to start falling apart. With everything being so tightly integrated you can't be as granular in replacing components. Whole assemblies/modules will need to be replaced in one expensive swoop.

I'm really curious what the longevity of these things will be. There's fewer moving parts and regenerative braking to help with the mechanical side of things but electrochemically there's way more going on. I hope they work out but even if they don't Canoo should get some really good real world test info they can use to learn and improve.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

By "Canoo" do you mean the LDV190?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

but they're basically indestructible and if something does break it's a piece of cake to swap it out

Nope. These vehicles are extremely unreliable, break all the time and require excessive and costly maintenance. The average LLV costs more than five grand per year in maintenance alone.

but electrochemically there's way more going on

The good news is that electric car batteries are far more reliable and long-lasting than initially anticipated. They usually outlast the car they are built into.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

The average LLV is also over 30 years old with hundreds of thousands of stop and go miles on them, given that they stopped making them in 1994.

Of course they’re unreliable now. There hasn’t been a new one built in 30 years.