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USPS set to buy Canoo electric vans
(electrek.co)
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Imagine going from this:
https://i.imgur.com/UoeQvdT.jpg
To this:
https://i.imgur.com/5HFjiNV.jpg
From a rattly iron duke with 90hp and a three-speed to an electric space ship with 200 (up to 350) hp.
Although I'd wager that going from no air conditioning to air conditioning is the one improvement that would be most appreciated. That and not dying in a an accident involving anything more formidable than a watermelon.
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.
By "Canoo" do you mean the LDV190?