Mahindra Examines 2nd Michigan Plant For Potential Postal Contract
Mahindra, the company that produces the intentionally Jeep-like Roxor, is looking at sites in Detroit, Oakland County, and Genesee County in the event that it lands a $6 billion contract to supply the U.S. Postal Service with delivery vehicles.
While USPS has already begun supplementing the now-ancient Grumman LLV with more-modern vans and utility vehicles, it launched an official search for a replacement in 2015. Mahindra was one of the finalists, along with AM General, Karsan, Oshkosh-Ford, Utilimaster, and VT Hackney.
The Postal Service plans on making a final decision this summer as to who will build some 180,000 replacement vehicles over the next six years.
According to Crain’s Detroit Business, Rick Haas, president and CEO of Mahindra Automotive North America, said he likes the company’s odds, acknowledging that the USPS’ decision will influence the direction it takes as an automaker.
“If we get a piece of that or all of that contract, that opens a bunch of doors, shuts a few other ones,” Haas said at a Troy Chamber of Commerce event from earlier this week. “If we don’t get it, it shuts some doors, opens some other ones. So we’re going to evaluate it all.”
Mahindra invested $22.3 million in a facility in Auburn Hills for assembly of its current Jeep CJ-based Roxor, renovating a former GM facility to use as a parts distribution center.
From Crain’s Detroit:
Haas told an audience of business executives and professionals that the automaker has six different products in development at the Mahindra North American Technical Center in Troy that could be paired with production of a postal service vehicle at a second manufacturing facility.
“The question is which ones do you start to push,” Haas said. “It’s going to depend on what happens over the summer.”
Haas declined to say which sites within Michigan the company is leaning toward. But he indicated they were all brownfield sites that need redevelopment.
Economic development officials from North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin have all approached Mahindra about building a plant in their states, Haas said.
With the USPS making its decision relatively soon, Mahindra will have to make some quick decisions if it wins the contract. Haas indicated that the firm will likely need to settle on a manufacturing location by the end of 2019. He said the final choice will be based upon “ease of business, your personal loyalties and how much money are you going to make.”
[Image: Mahindra & Mahindra]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Scoutdude--It depends where you live as to if the postal vehicles are parked in a fenced in area. Many postal vehicles are parked out in the open. Also you still have to make the battery serviceable so I don't know how you would make them harder to remove unless some kind of locking system could be installed to make it harder for thieves to remove. I do think eventually that electric vehicles will become more common but the battery technology has to be developed further.
I would be very surprised if the USPC went to an all electric fleet anytime soon. I would say if USPC goes to an electric fleet it would be better to start in a metropolitan area that has less distances to travel. Not all mail deliveries are 30 miles or less and that is why it would be better to start in a metropolitan area where that would be the case. I don't think it would be good to start rural mail delivery with electric vehicles--but I could see this working in a large metropolitan area. "Several labs have various electrode coating technologies that if they can actually get them into production at low costs, should easily get the density up to 1000 Wh/kg in a few years." Yes I have read about this but the current USPC bidding would not include that technology. It would probably be better if the USPC replaced their vehicles over a longer period of time and allowed enough flexibility to include a few electric vehicles where they could be better used and then expand the fleet of electric vehicles when the density of the batteries is increased. The problem with most Government contracts is that they bid on current technology and do not allow for flexibility. I know this first hand when the Government bids on replacement laptops it includes only the current technology and by the time the laptops are made and delivered they are out of date. It seems that the Government needs to add more flexibility to contracts to allow for newer improved technology.