The United States Postal Service confirmed yesterday that it plans to purchase at least 66,000 EV delivery vehicles by 2028.
This new 66,000 number is more than half of the 106,000 vehicles the service is planning to acquire between now and 2028.
This is a significant upgrade over the 25,000 number that we saw back in the Summer from the USPS.
Although the investment is significant, a portion of the funding comes via the Inflation Reduction Act and other sources.
In total, the procurement could reach as much as $9.6 billion to create one of the largest EV fleets in the country.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said this about the proposed acquisition:
We have a statutory requirement to deliver mail and packages to 163 million addresses six days per week and to cover our costs in doing so — that is our mission. As I have said in the past, if we can achieve those objectives in a more environmentally responsible way, we will do so.
The Postal Service did not confirm if they are working with any specific automakers for the off-the-shelf portion of the contract.
We know that the company is working with Oshkosh Defense to manufacture a next generation delivery vehicle.
At the moment, twenty per cent of those vehicles are scheduled to be battery-electric, but that could change between now and when they are delivered
