M&M in running for US Post’s delivery vans
As Mahindra’s top brass filed into town for the inauguration of a new research and design facility in Detroit, home to the US and world’s automobile industry — a historic moment for the firm, there was one project they have all wanted to talk about the most, but couldn’t.
“We have been embargoed from talking about it, apart from confirming the fact that we have been shortlisted,” said chairman of the Mahindra Group Anand Mahindra, who is here for the inauguration of a first such facility by an Indian company in the heart o America’s automobile country. He added, “We would love to talk about it, but can’t.”
The man overseeing the project, Richard Haas, a veteran of skunk-work projects spanning 37 years in the industry with a stint including the new Mecca of automobile-related innovations Tesla, refused to talk about it saying he had already been repri- manded for talking about three times.
Mahindra Americas is on the shortlist of six companies that have been selected by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to build Next Generation Delivery Vehicle — Delivery Vans, in short — to replace the Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV) that’s been in use for 30 years, since 1987.
Mahindra started the race with 14 others in 2016, a field that was winnowed to six, who were required to turn in prototypes for testing by this September. Mahindra has sent 14, which are undergoing tests that are likely to continue till the Spring of 2018. The Postal Service had then said it “plans to test the vehicles during a period of six months in a range of different climates, topography, population centers and delivery environments”.
The postal service operates more than 200,000 vehicles, of which an estimated 163,000 Long-Life vehicles (LLVs) purchased between 1987 and 2001. With an average age of 25 years, most of them are beyond their designed useful life. Their upkeep in maintenance and repairs is said to cost the postal service about a $1 billion a year, well more than what a new fleet could cost them.
The winner of the multi-billion dollar contract is to be announced next summer or fall, according to US officials who would not discuss any other details of the project.
The other five on the shortlist were, as announced by USPS, AM General, a military and commercial vehicle maker; Karsan, a Turkish commercial vehicle company; Oshkosh, a maker of commercial and military specialty trucks; Spartan Motors, a manufacturer of vans, parcel delivery vans, and truck bodies; and VT Hackney, a unit of a Singapore-based aerospace, electronics, and military contractor.
DETROIT,MICHIGAN: