[dZired]

Mahindra & Mahindra has been shortlisted by the US Postal Service to develop a Next-Gen Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) prototype. The Indian automaker is amongst six global manufacturers that have made it to the final shortlist.

Mahindra had filed for a proposal for the said prototype contract in October 2015. The US Postal Services (USPS) has now given one year for the six shortlisted firms to develop and present their final prototypes. These prototypes will then be tested and analysed by USPS, before giving out future vehicle production contracts.

The engineering and design team behind the NGDV Prototype project is based out of Mahindra's North American Technical Center in Michigan. This Center has dedicatedly been assigned the role of innovating, designing and developing new products for the US market.

Link to Team-BHP News

[medicineman1987]

Wow. That's really great news and will definitely be a boost for the Make in India initiative. Have seen so many Hollywood movies with the iconic postal delivery van in it. Its exciting to think that may be replaced by a Mahindra some day. Kudos to Mahindra! :

[invidious]

USPS postal vehicles are right-hand drives unlike the rest of the cars sold in the US. This is so that it is easier for them to open up mailboxes and drop the mail right in the mailboxes in suburban Americana. This should make is even better for Mahindra - they don't have to change assembly lines or anything.

[medicineman1987]

Originally Posted by invidious

USPS postal vehicles are right-hand drives unlike the rest of the cars sold in the US. This is so that it is easier for them to open up mailboxes and drop the mail right in the mailboxes in suburban Americana. This should make is even better for Mahindra - they don't have to change assembly lines or anything.

Thanks for the information. Was totally unaware of this and never noticed the RHD configuration. A quick read on Wikipedia confirmed your info. Apparently this dropping off of the letters directly into the curbside mailboxes is referred to as mounted delivery.

[GTO]

Pleasantly surprised that Mahindra made it to the shortlist ! Well done. I'm sure Mahindra's expertise in EVs (thanks to Reva) was a contributor. I think EVs are best suited to the kind of work that USPS vehicles do.

That said, I don't think there's any chance of an agency of the US Govt choosing an India-owned company. Will be a political disaster. Still, quite an achievement for Mahindra to get where they have.

Originally Posted by medicineman1987

A quick read on Wikipedia confirmed your info.

Here's another interesting read - link.

[vikramk]

While the original boxy mail truck was made by Grumman, these were being replaced by Chrysler vehicles based on the Town and Country minivan. Interesting to note that our home grown Mahindra is now getting a chance to bid for a slice of the US postal service pie.

Also apparently the mail trucks just do about 20 miles (32 kms) a day and hence EV's appear to be a good option.

Found this interesting info-graphic - its long but tells the story of the mail truck.


Pic courtesy - http://www.greatbusinessschools.org/...-life-vehicle/

[TusharK]

Mahindra has bagged a $11 million prototype contract from the US Govt. for next-gen postal delivery vehicles. Mahindra Automotive North America will deliver 14 prototypes for approval by November, 2017.

According to media reports, the prototypes will be built in Detroit and will be delivered for road-testing in two phases. The first batch of eight prototypes will be delivered in September and the remaining six by November. If approved, Mahindra will have to build 1.8 lakh vehicles over a six year period. The price of each vehicle is expected to be around $35,000 and also a maintenance and repair contract will be awarded.

Four other manufacturers - AM General, VT Hackney, Oshkosh Corporation and Turkish commercial vehicles manufacturer Karsan are also in the race for the $6 billion order.

Mahindra was shortlisted to develop a Next-Gen Delivery Vehicle for the US Postal Service in 2016. Proposals from six manufacturers were shortlisted and were asked to develop prototypes within a year. The project is being handled by Mahindra's North American Technical Center in Michigan.

Source: ET Auto

Link to Team-BHP News

[thehighwayman]

If news reports are to be believed, Mahindra has shown interest in supplying mail delivery trucks to USPS . The proposed vehicle is going to be based on the Genio truck.

Link:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...cle-prototype/

[sathya.bhat]

Some more information on this mail truck has been spotted by Jalopnik here.

Quoting from the article,
"I think it’s Mahindra’s because of the proportions and those steel wheels, which I believe are ones Mahindra uses. There’s some other circumstantial factors as well, but I can’t expand on those"
"For U.S. Post Office duty, Mahindra is planning to use the mild-hybrid drivetrain from the Chevy Colorado pickup, which is, of course, already compliant to American emissions laws."



"The mail truck we see here seems to be a pretty evolutionary design from the LLV. It’s got a very tall greenhouse and a massive, flat windshield, a roomy-looking cargo box area, and some of the most massive, cushiony-looking bumpers I’ve seen on anything since those 1970s experimental safety cars. The lighting looks like off-the-shelf LED units"

[volkman10]

Mahindra US Postal Service prototype spotted testing.

Mahindra’s proposal for NGDV prototypes for the USPS was led by south-east Michigan-based Mahindra North American Technical Center (MNATC). The proposal submitted by MNATC stressed upon the safety, ergonomics and fuel economy of the vehicle which will be developed from ground-up. The truck will be powered by a 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel motor. It might also get a mild hybrid powertrain along with both two- and four-wheel drive layout.

link

[volkman10]

Mahindra USPS Prototype Spied

Inside, the Mahindra prototype continues to include several modern-day features such as air conditioning, a push-button start, a push-button gear selector, and a driver’s airbag. Power will likely come from some four-cylinder gasoline or turbodiesel engine. The prototype’s underpinnings remain unknown. However, the platform is likely decades newer than the first-generation Chevy S10 platform that underpins the Grumman LLVs.

Link

[Hawkeye269]

Originally Posted by GTO

That said, I don't think there's any chance of an agency of the US Govt choosing an India-owned company. Will be a political disaster. Still, quite an achievement for Mahindra to get where they have.

Originally Posted by TusharK

Mahindra has bagged a $11 million prototype contract from the US Govt. for next-gen postal delivery vehicles. Mahindra Automotive North America will deliver 14 prototypes for approval by November, 2017.

According to media reports, the prototypes will be built in Detroit

Actually, as long as the vehicles are being manufactured in the U.S. - that too in a state like Michigan, which is among the top-10 (bottom-10??!) states for unemployment - it will actually count as a political coup. In the convoluted world of American politics, getting an overseas company to come to the U.S. to create American jobs for Americans will make for better headlines.

[V.Narayan]

Fingers crossed that this goes through in favour of M&M. One cant but admire their courage and tenacity. If a deal gets signed after the trials it will be a coup for Indian automotive industry.

[libranof1987]

Mahindra has withdrawn its bid to develop the USPS delivery vehicles.

Mahindra & Mahindra has bailed out from the bid to manufacture small delivery trucks for the United States Postal Service that is worth $6.3 billion. The company has written off the investment it had made towards this project, a top official of the company said.

The company claims that the investment in MANA would not have met the return on equity of 18 percent targeted by it. This move comes less than a quarter after M&M decided to stop fresh investments in its loss-making subsidiary SsangYong Motor Company and the shutdown of Genze, an electric two-wheeler manufacturing business in the US.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/te...e-5660601.html

Wonder if, and to what extent, the pandemic and/or the resulting socio-economic condition + Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric in the US has played a role in this.

[thehighwayman]

In all likelihood,this contract ( or at least partially) is going to be awarded to Workhorse , a homegrown US brand. This being an election year, the optics around awarding the contract for the national mail carrier to a foreign manufacturer would have been quite bad.

M&M made the sensible decision to cut losses and pull out.