New Postal Vans

Apparently, some are coming from ze Germans. I saw one this morning:

https://www.ruralinfo.net/rhd-mercedes-metris-vans-to-be-deployed-to-12664-rural-ema-routes.html

A Mercedes as a postal vehicle. 

That's just brilliant...

This is weird. Seems like no better application for EVs than local postal delivery routes. 

OHSCrifle said:

This is weird. Seems like no better application for EVs than local postal delivery routes. 

Mail Delivery, School Buses, Trash Trucks etc.  All perfect for an EV since they start and stop a lot and go back to a depot every day.

The issue is that the routes are quite long and their loads quite heavy so the current range doesnt work and that would require significant changes in the routes and more vehicles.

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) : I can see what you mean for rural routes  

Electric would be great for in-city mail vans, but rural delivery routes can be very long.  The Metris has a 2 liter four cylinder turbocharged engine, from what I can find online?

Call me old fashioned, but I wish that they'd bought American.

The parts and service costs on these is going to eat them alive. 

aren't these things noted for being maintenace pigs?

I think these are assembled from Knock Down kits in the US...

Surprised Ford could not have brought in the RHD transits for a lower price point.  At least then almost any ford dealership could work on them

Shame they can't resurrect the VW Fridolin.

My first thought is a rhd Dodge Caravan could do the job, more specifically, one of the stripped, utility versions know as Ram C/V:

Of course, the Caravan was just discontinued but the Pacifica is being made as a lesser version known as the Voyager. 

Further on with this thought process, Pacifica offers a hybrid. So, it's a shame that FCA couldn't offer a stripped down, utility version with hybrid, in rhd. 

Does FCA even offer a rhd Pacifica to other countries? 

OHSCrifle said:

This is weird. Seems like no better application for EVs than local postal delivery routes. 

Given the additional costs involved with buying them, it would also mean an increase in postal charges or increased taxes.  EV's are far from free.

Our local bus service was recently hybrid, but are going back to straight diesel due to the costs of buying and maintaining them.  For the price of one hybrid bus, they are getting two diesel busses.  

EVs are even more expensive than liquid fuel hybrid vehicles.  At least for now- I still hope that it will change someday.

mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:

Surprised Ford could not have brought in the RHD transits for a lower price point.  At least then almost any ford dealership could work on them

I've seen Ram Promaster vans used for delivery here.

Amazon's own delivery service has been using Metris vans now. We'll see if economists ten years from now mark that decision as what sank Amazon or not.

We work on the local post offices LLVs. They've had a few Mercs in a bigger town and it has not gone well apparently. 

Cue the politicians who regularly bash USPS screaming about USPS "Driving Mercedes-Benzes!!!"