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