The United States Post Office shopped out contracts for trial-run electric delivery trucks. So far, they’ve selected five different companies to convert trucks for the USPS to test out in Washington, D.C. Better known as the Land of Oz. Every small EV maker in the country whose products are even remotely shaped like a truck has put in bids. Even companies nobody’s ever really heard of are diving for the government cash.*
Here are the five big winners so far, all of whom will be converting the standard Post Office delivery truck (pictured here, with a conceptual paint job) to all-electric for the D.C. trials:
Since the job is really a conversion, not a top-to-bottom build, I’m going to make some predictions here. I think that the finalists will be Bright, Quantum and AC Propulsion and the final winner will likely be AC Propulsion. Let me explain.
ZAP is generally long on promises and short on results. They’re also getting out of the electric vehicle business and getting into supplying parts and systems to other electric vehicle manufacturers. For that reason, I don’t expect them to do well here. This will be the same reason that Quantum will ultimately not win the contract either.
EDAG is just, well, looney and they’re in Germany. Easy one to write off. Bright is a nice enough company with some good ideas, but in the end, this is a conversion job. Only one company of the five really has a lot of experience making EV conversions. That’s AC Propulsion. Plus, they have Tom Hanks on their side. How can you go wrong with Forrest Gump pimping the show? Really.
“Liewwtenannt PostOfficeGuyuuyyy. You just have to pick the A-C-P. Just got to. I will give you a choc-o-lut.”
Personally, I’m hoping for a Forest Gump II, if only to keep him from making another damn DaVinci movie with that stupid hair.
“It’s easy to decode, once you understand the matrix, Jesus-Daughter-Lady. Here, it says:
Looketh thou upon the mirror and knoweth that thou dost need a damn haircut.
Really, it does say that. Ask Opie there behind the camera. He knows all, he has the Holy Script of Antioch.”
So, anyway, there you have it. Five companies (so far, there could be more) vying for the contract to convert a bunch of USPS trucks to electric. Now you know the story, my picks for the win, and why Tom Hanks should retire.
*Note: The USPS is a “private” company whose only affiliation with government is that nobody else is allowed to carry mail except them and they get to participate in the government employee’s union benefits packages. Otherwise, they’re totally private and independent. Really.
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Just be sure to check the quarterly before investing. See this: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/zap-pulls-the-plug-on-xebra-ev-but-not-on-stock-shenanigans/
And for the record, I have interviewed people at ZAP for articles for other venues. I was greatly interested in EESTOR technology, but with the near-zero information the company is willing to give out and the broken promises they’ve given so far.. It’s hard to take ZAP seriously.
March 7, 2010 at 20:22
Um, Zenn is the one with EESTOR. ZAP is the one that is working on an electric SUV…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyYW2qfUreA
Oh hell. Sorry. My mistake on the EESTOR-Zap-Zenn messup. I guess the names are similar and I honestly haven’t talked to either company in many months. Either way, the link I provided is still relevant, at least. I apologize for the rest of the mixup, though.
March 9, 2010 at 12:44[...] I wrote about the USPS contracts for test-run electric delivery trucks a few days ago, the comments centered around my confusing ZAP with ZENN motors and the EESTOR [...]
March 10, 201011:13
Latest From GreenBigTruck
Come visit ZAP and see that we are making many different electric vehicles. Seriously, call up our PR and set up a tour. They’ve got new people coming through there every day.
March 7, 2010 at 19:58