8 Cummins electric trucks headed to USPS

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Updated Mar 15, 2019

United States Postal Service truckCummins announced that it has begun delivering eight all-electric vehicles to the United States Postal Service.

The fully-electric Cummins PowerDrive equipped vans are expected to eliminate vehicle emissions and reduce fuel and maintenance costs.

The pilot program, made possible by a grant from the California Air Resources Board to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) and administered by CALSTART, will place the zero-emission vehicles in Fresno and Stockton. Cummins will also provide operator training, vehicle support and data collection to support the program.

“We’re excited to provide the US Postal Service with these fully-electric vehicles for demonstration and testing,” said Julie Furber, vice president of Electrified Power, Cummins. “This program demonstrates our ability to help customers do real work in the real world…As infrastructure and customer demand evolve, we’ll have the right technology at the right time.”

The eight Cummins-powered vans will be in service by the end of this month. The vans have an all-electric range up to 85 miles with a full load on urban drive cycles typical of USPS collection vehicles.

According to Cummins the direct drive architecture provides improved performance over the gasoline-powered version in critical areas of power and efficiency. The vans use the same charging system as passenger electric vehicles (SAE J1772 Level 2) and can reach a full charge in about eight hours, making overnight charging a viable option.

In 2017, Cummins announced its commitment to invest $500 million in electrification across many applications, markets and regions over a period of three years. The 200 engineers at Cummins Electrified Power are solely focused on inventing electrified power solutions for its customers.

In 2018, Cummins announced partnerships and collaborations with on- and off-highway OEMs who are working on electrification solutions in products ranging from bus to medium duty trucks, light commercial vehicles, excavators and drayage trucks.