The All-Electric 2022 Ford E-Transit is Here to Power Deliveries and Job Sites
Ford debuted its first all-electric E-Transit Van. The new van travels 126 miles between charges and has a generator to power your tools.
The E-Transit will come in three heights and three lengths, plus chassis and cutaway models, deliver 266 hp and 317 lb-ft of torque and have an estimated 126-mile range. Ford says it will cost less than $45,000 when it goes on sale late in 2021.
Ford says most Transits sold last year had upfitting in some form. The brand also notes that 13 such outfits are within 30 miles of the assembly plant in Missouri, meaning customers don’t have to take delivery before their E-Transit is customized; they go right to the upfitter.
Read the article at MSN.
NREL: Strong Growth of U.S. Charging Station Installs Continued in Q1 2020
According to the new National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report about the EV charging infrastructure in the U.S., the strong growth continued in Q1 2020.
The number of public charging points (AC and DC) increased during the first three months by 5,627 or 7.6% compared to the end of 2019, to 79,465. That's actually more than 60 per day.
The expansion of public DC fast chargers is even quicker - by 10.6% to 13,591, although NREL notes that roughly half of those stalls are accessible only to Tesla vehicles (Tesla Supercharging network). Additionally, there are nearly 14,000 private EVSE (such as charging for transit fleets or employees only) - 3.2% more than as of the end of 2019. At the end of Q1, the total of public and private stations was close to 93,500.
Read the article at Inside EVs.
Click it or Ticket
As you head out around the Thanksgiving holiday, you'll likely see more law enforcement on the roads as part of Click It or Ticket. This campaign, from November 16-29, aims at enforcing seat belt use to help keep drivers and passengers safer on our roads.
In 2019, 9,466 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants were killed in crashes in the United States. While that was a decrease from 2018, an early study for 2020 suggests that during the COVID-19 public health emergency, driving patterns and behaviors changed significantly. Of those drivers who remained on the roads, there was more risky behavior, including people not wearing seat belts.
Always place the shoulder belt across the middle of your chest and away from your neck, and place the lap belt across your hips, not your stomach. You should never put the shoulder belt behind your back or under your arm. And remember: always buckle up.
Read the article at NHTSA.
Are Digital License Plates the Future? High-Tech Plates Enable Message Displays, Registration Renewal
Anthony Williams is a die-hard Las Vegas Raiders fan who will tell it to the world from the battery-operated "Rplate" digital license plate at the back end of his Tesla.
“I can put up my favorite sports team — mine is the Raiders — and I can change the background colors,” said Williams, who lives in Huntington Beach, California. “There are hundreds of messages to choose from on the app. It runs the gamut. There's ‘Gone Fishing' ... or my neighbor is a huge Lakers fan, and when Kobe Bryant passed away, we both displayed ‘Kobe RIP.’"
The plate is functional, too. Running through an app on his phone, it relieves him of the hassle of going to California's Department of Motor Vehicles for his registration, messing with plate stickers, and it can alert other drivers that his car is stolen. But his favorite feature is the message display on the plate, which he can change using the app to say whatever he fancies on any given day.
Read the article at USA Today.
How Fleets Can Finance for Uncertainty
By Anthony Sasso, President, TD Bank Equipment Finance Inc.
As we look down the road at 2021, there are some hopeful signs on the horizon.
While consumer spending is still down, the Cass Freight Index shows that shipping volumes are up from August and is now only 1.8% behind year over year—up 27.5% from April lows. FTR's Trucking Conditions Index rose to 8.31, showing increased optimism for the industry thanks to the favorable rate environment. The sale of Class 8 trucks continues to recover, and spot rates are also going the right direction, which could be a sign of a rebounding economy.
Even with these hopeful signs, there are still more questions than answers for the year ahead. The biggest question—how the pandemic will play out in the months ahead—will impact everything else. Still, fleets can prepare for the uncertain environment to ensure they are set up for success. Here are a few ways they can make sure they are ready for the unknown.
