I recently heard a report on NPR about a man that had invented an electric car. He had presented his invention to the US Postal Service as a possible vehicle for postal deliveries in town. His car only got around 30 or 40 miles to a charge. The battery life just wasn’t developed enough to take them further. But inner city, that is plenty of distance. Jeep company was impressed with his design and offered to back it for manufacture.
It looked like we were going to have electric cars delivering our mail. I was so excited. But I also realized the broadcaster was interviewing the man and discussing this all in the past tense. Oh no! Jeep company suddenly pulled their support. The US Postal Service balked at a small time company (a start up) handling such an important responsibility. The whole proposal fell apart.
They did not try electric cars in smaller neighborhoods. They did not attempt a small run at this to prove the concept. I thought this all was so upsetting because I want electric cars. I want carbon neutral transportation. I want my food brought in on electric semi-truck tractor trailers.
The most disturbing part for me was this man had presented this idea in the 70’s. It was old news. And the US Postal Service has not revisited it to my knowledge.
