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Winter challenges for posters: heating off, battery empty!
Postal suppliers in Austria fight with range problems in electric vehicles in winter. Heats often have to be switched off.
Winter challenges for posters: heating off, battery empty!
A frosty dilemma for the post suppliers in Austria! Many of them are forced to switch off the heating in their electric vehicles in cold weather so as not to stay in the middle of the route with empty batteries. This is particularly the case in rural areas where the deliverers often have to take long and demanding tours. The postal unionist Franz Doppelhofer makes it clear: "With electric vehicles, especially with older electric vehicles, we already have a range problem." How Exxpress.atreports, this problem mainly affects the first generations of electric vehicles, the batteries of which are often overused on hilly trips. In the meantime, Post has also ordered electric delivery vehicles from China, but the delivery of which slowly progresses.
E-cars under pressure
"If you want to drive, you have to freeze!" This motto affects numerous postmen, especially in Styria. "The combination of many stops and hilly terrain is too much for some batteries, so the deliverers have to turn off the heating if they want to buy it back to the base," Doppelhofer to the Small newspaper. Although the Swiss Post intensively invests in the electrification of its fleet, older models show weaknesses that come to light even at low temperatures. Post-press spokesman Markus Leitgeb tries to dispel the concerns and emphasizes that only a "handful of old vehicles" is affected. In addition, the post is proud of its e-fleet, which with almost 5,000 vehicles is the largest in the country and is expanded by 1,000 new electric cars annually.
Post is quite optimistic and hopes for the new generation of electric vehicles, which in the future not only has a better range, but also through climate systems. These could end the "trembling section" for the deliverers. Doppelhofer is confident: "The new electric vehicles should now gradually replace the old cars." Until then, however, the postmen has no different than to do without heating in winter and to keep an eye on the battery status.