Lordstown, Ohio, Mayor Arno Hill discusses GMs selling their Lordstown plant to an electric truck startup and what the move means for jobs in his city, such as President Trump’s popularity among Lordstown residents.
Their delivery may be a little late, but the new post trucks are almost here.
The US Postal Service has confirmed that it intends to award one or more contracts for the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle by the end of this year.
The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) will replace the long-serving Grumman Long Life Vehicle, which went out of production in 1994 but has had a large maintenance cost all these years. About 180,000 cars will be purchased over five to seven years at a cost of $ 6.3 billion.
The USPS intended to make a decision last year, but had delayed several steps in the process, and mostly moved the deadline for requesting NGDV production to July 14, due to COVID-19. An analysis of the proposals and negotiations with the bidders will now begin. USPS will not comment on the specifications of the process, or which motorists remain, but three candidates remain, according to Trucks.com.
The motorists are also tight-lipped about their involvement, but Fox News has obtained images of the finalists’ prototypes. The original request for postponement requested a right-hand-drive van with an aluminum or composite body, sloping sidewalks for both the passenger compartment and the cargo area, a load capacity of 1,500 pounds, a ceiling height of 6 feet, 4 inches, a total length of 19 feet and an all-wheel-drive option. A specific type of drive was not specified, but the operating costs are part of the overall assessment and the trucks must be built in the US
KARSAN / MORGAN OLSEN
Turkey’s Karsan tried earlier and failed to win the contract to build New York City’s Taxi of Tomorrow, but brought in a belt for the mail. The American partner in the endeavor, Morgan Olson, is a businessman of Grumman.
OSHKOSH / FORD
Oshkosh and Ford are working together on the only finalist that started as an existing production car. Based on a high-roof Ford Transit van, which has to deal with a diesel engine and soon to be available with all-wheel-drive, the van is adapted with the required sliding doors and a lot of body protection.
WORKHORSE
Workhorse, the company that launched electric pickup startup Lordstown Motors, had partnered with commercial truck specialist Hackney on a battery-powered prototype that could potentially use plug-in hybrid technology, but Hackney dropped out, undermining the project’s status was unclear.
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