Merchants Fleet Expands EV Portfolio with Step Van Orders
Merchants Fleet announced that it will continue to expand its offering of electric fleet vehicles with an intent to buy EV step vans from Xos Inc., a leading manufacturer of fully electric Class 5 to Class 8 commercial vehicles.
The electric Xos step van is designed to accommodate an extensive variety of medium-duty bodies, making it an ideal solution for Merchants’ extensive portfolio of last mile delivery clients throughout North America.
“Merchants is eager to partner with emerging OEMs like Xos, who are innovating and making a significant impact in the industry,” said Hari Nayar, Merchants Fleet Director of Electrification and Sustainability. “Adding Xos step vans to our fleet provides our clients with a durable, reliable and cost-effective option, especially for last mile delivery services.”
Residual Value in a Rapidly Evolving Transportation World — Who’s Taking the Risk?
By Ed Pierce, Contributing Editor
In 2021, we’ve heard about chip shortages, supply chain disruptions and OEM slowdowns ad nauseum. In the midst of all this chatter, one bright spot that has sparked the enthusiasm of both the fleet industry and the average consumer is the coming EV revolution.
Anticipated to take place more or less over the next 10 years, these changes will not be without some bumps in the road. One concern is the development of infrastructure. Another “bump” receiving less attention could be volatility in residual values—for either or both electric vehicles (EV) and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE). What is your risk to exposure?
We decided to ask the experts on risk. RVI is an organization that has managed residual risk exposure since 1989. Residual value insurance is purchased primarily to provide accounting coverage, increased loan to value ratio and asset value coverage. We had the opportunity to speak with two RVI executives, Wei Fan, Senior Vice President of Risk Management and David McKay, Vice President of Business Development and Sales. They provided some perspective on residual value risk for an industry facing a once-in-a-century type of change.
Study: Most Drivers Can’t Differentiate AVs and Driver Assistance Tech
The majority of vehicle owners think that the installation of advanced driver assistance technology qualifies their car as a “fully automated self driving vehicle,” a new study shows - and experts worry that over-confidence could cost lives.
Experts worry that the finding could indicate that drivers think advanced driver assistance systems are just as good at preventing crashes as hypothetical autonomous driving technology that has yet to be invented - a dangerous assumption that’s already proven to lead to distracted behavior behind the wheel.
Even worse, the researchers found that the phenomenon of “automation complacency” doesn’t go away when drivers learn more about the true capabilities of advanced driver assistance-equipped cars, including when they actually buy and start driving them - and in some cases, automakers themselves may be actively adding to the confusion. Hearteningly, a substantial majority of survey respondents indicated they were willing to attend education classes about the proper operation of cars at all levels of automation.
Read the article at Streetsblog USA.
How the 3G Shutdown in 2022 Could Screw Your Car
Major 3G cellular networks will be shut down in the U.S. in 2022. A large number of new cars made in the last decade, even some in the 2021 model year, were built with their connected services running on 3G.
That includes things like in-nav traffic and location data, WiFi hotspots, emergency call services, remote lock/unlock functions, smartphone app connectivity, voice assistants, and even concierge services. With few exceptions, most of those features in most of those cars will no longer work by the end of 2022 when AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all pull the plug.
Automakers' plans range from upgrading people's vehicles to 4G or 5G (for a fee, of course) to shrugging their shoulders and quietly acknowledging that their cars are about to lose a lot of features.
Read the article at The Drive.
Fed ZEV: Government Plans On Going Full Zero Emissions Fleet by 2035
The U.S. federal government is going to lead the charge on national zero emissions vehicle adoption by mandating a full zero-emissions fleet by 2035. This executive order dictates what federal agencies must do, not what private business nor citizens of the U.S. are required to do.
This could lead to good things for EV consumers, considering that the U.S. government fleet is made up of about 645,000 total vehicles—and nearly 200,000 of those are passenger vehicles. Any business that does fleet contract work for the GSA will definitely need to begin working towards being able to service those vehicles right now.
A few changes have already occurred, such as the U.S. Park Police using EV bikes and motorcycles, and the Department of Homeland Security plans to utilize Ford Mustang Mach-Es.
Read the article at MotorTrend.
