US Postal service picks Mahindra to develop next-gen delivery vehicle prototypes

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced that Mahindra & Mahindra has been selected to deliver NGDV prototype vehicles for testing as the result of a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) issued in October 2015. 

Mahindra is one of six vehicle manufacturers the USPS has selected to produce prototypes for testing and evaluation. The awardees will have approximately one year from contract award to design and deliver their prototypes. Production requirements and future vehicle replacement awards will be determined by USPS after NGDV Prototype testing. 

Commenting on the development, Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group, said, “We are excited to be part of the USPS NGDV prototype program. The USPS has recognised Mahindra’s engineering proposal and selected us for vehicle development and prototype delivery. This is a strategic development in Mahindra’s ambition to become a global mobility player.”

“The USPS is looking for a modern, safe and efficient vehicle to meet their daily delivery and operational needs,” said Rick Haas, president and COO, MNATC in Troy, Michigan. “Our team has significant global experience engineering some of the best trucks ever produced.   We’ve spent thousands of hours ensuring this proposal will optimize driver and pedestrian safety and provide the USPS with a modern and reliable vehicle architecture that can easily adapt to a broad variety of future scenarios.”

Mahindra’s engineering and design proposal was led by its Southeast Michigan-based Mahindra North American Technical Center (MNATC). Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, MNATC has leveraged the significant pool of automotive engineering talent that thrives in the Detroit area to create innovative vehicle designs for the U.S. market. MNATC’s team submitted a proposal emphasising safety, ergonomics and fuel economy all within a ground-up approach to vehicle integration.

Mahindra has a long history (70 years) of building right-hand drive commercial vehicles with a capacity for handling rugged conditions. Since 1949, when Mahindra started manufacturing the post-war Willys Overland Jeep, the company has centered its philosophy of vehicle engineering and design around durability and toughness. These are the two requisite characteristics for the rigorous all-day, all-weather use involved in mail delivery.