United States Postal Service chases Fleet Electrification with 50,000-vehicle order from Oshkosh Defense

March 25, 2022
Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense will manufacture both zero emission battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel-efficient low-emission internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE) for the USPS in their Spartanburg, South Carolina factory.

The United States Postal Service, despite tremendous financial stresses, is making a significant investment to improve its environmental bottom line in the future.

USPS is ordering 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles (NGDV) from Oshkosh Defense in a deal valued at nearly $3 billion. These NGDVs include both electric and fuel-efficient internal combustion engine vehicles, according to the release.

Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense will manufacture both zero emission battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel-efficient low-emission internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE) for the USPS in their Spartanburg, South Carolina factory. The first order includes more than 10,000 battery-electric vehicles.

“We’re incredibly proud to build the USPS NGDV. It is designed to be the modern, safe, dependable vehicle the carriers have been waiting for,” said John Bryant, Executive Vice President, Oshkosh Corporation, and President, Oshkosh Defense. “Facility preparations in South Carolina are well underway and hiring of team members has already begun.”

Production of the NGDVs is expected to begin in 2023.

Due to a variety of factors including revenues and labor commitments, the USPS has suffered close to $100 billion in net losses since 2007. The entity is the largest such postal service in the world, according to U.S. Government Accounting Office, and delivers nearly half of the mail sent globally.

The USPS has more than 230,000 vehicles and has accelerated its move toward electric vehicles for future decarbonization.The presidential administration and some members of Congress have pressurized the agency to move faster on electrification.

Some sustainability advocates have criticized the USPS EV orders as too small within the entire fleet. President Biden earlier this year issued an executive order that all federal agency fleets go electric by 2035.

Transportation accounts for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emission in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).

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About the Author

Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.