USPS

The US Postal Service showed off its first EV charging stations, and some spiffy new Ford E-Transit BEVs, at an event in Atlanta yesterday, with hundreds of new sorting and delivery centers set to open around the country this year. It’s all part of the $40 billion plan to upgrade its service while assembling one of the county’s largest EV fleets, with more than 66,000 delivery vehicles in service.

Electrifying the entire US federal fleet would save $6 billion over 15 years, according to a report from global research and analytics firm ICF Climate Center.

Blink Charging ($BLNK) revealed Thursday it has won an IDIQ (indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity) contract with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to sell up to 41,500 EV chargers to power the expanding USPS fleet of electric vehicles.

The US Postal Service will purchase 9,250 off-the-shelf Ford E-Transits in its push to move toward electric delivery vehicles, with deliveries beginning at the end of this year.

In a major reversal, the US Postal Service (USPS) has announced that it will ensure that 75% of new vehicles purchased in the next several years will be electric. By 2026, that will increase to 100% of purchases.

The US Senate has allocated $3 billion in additional funding to the US Postal Service for electrification of the nation’s delivery fleet, as part of yesterday’s massive climate bill. It’s the latest move in the long saga for postal service electrification and effectively “calls USPS’s bluff” by supplying as much funding as the USPS claimed a 100% BEV fleet would cost.

Update: USPS responded to our questions, which we’ve included at the end of the article.

The US Postal Service has clearly been reading Electrek and our disdain for its previous decisions not to implement more EVs across its upcoming fleet of mail delivery vehicles. In a recent pivot towards sustainability, the USPS has more than doubled its number of electric vehicles for a second time. However, even after its intention to buy “as many BEVs as are commercially available,” the new EVs will still only make up 40% of the initial order. Better yes, but still not good enough.

I recently wrote an opinion piece about how the United States Postal Service (USPS) could look to solve its gas-guzzler truck problem by following Europe’s example of delivering mail with smaller electric cargo bikes. As it turns out, the postal service has already been testing this out, and the little electric mail bikes look pretty snazzy too.

Electric cargo bikes, especially four-wheeled versions that function as mini delivery vans, are becoming an increasingly common solution for mail delivery around the world. As USPS struggles with its own delivery van ordering scandal, the latest example of alternative lightweight and efficient electric four-wheeler delivery vehicles saw yet another European country demonstrating the effectiveness of switching away from gas-powered mail trucks.

Several states and environmental and labor groups have filed lawsuits against the USPS today. The lawsuits charge that the agency failed to do required environmental assessments before going through with their deal to spend billions on gas guzzlers to replace the aging postal service fleet.

The House Oversight Committee held a 3.5-hour long hearing today on USPS’ contract to buy tens of thousands of gas guzzling trucks from Oshkosh Defense to replace its aging delivery fleet.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced that it updated its plan to upgrade its fleet of delivery vehicles to double the number of electric vehicles as part of the order.

However, the USPS decided to unfortunately still mostly buy inefficient gas trucks as part of the 50,000-vehicle fleet refresh.

The USPS issued a “record of decision” today stating that it has finished its environmental review and responded to the EPA’s concerns and will go through with its plan to spend up to $11.3 billion on gas-guzzling, 8.6 mile-per-gallon vehicles to replace the aging USPS delivery fleet.

However, if you read the USPS press release summarizing the decision, you wouldn’t know that – since the press release makes no mention of the USPS’s plans to buy polluting, fossil-powered vehicles, and repeatedly only mentions electric and electrified vehicles.

Ever since Oshkosh received a $6 billion contract from the United States Postal Service for the development of a new mail delivery vehicle, the contract has drawn controversy. Oshkosh’s plan includes primarily gas-powered vehicles, and it won out over another plan for all-electric vehicles. Now the White House is urging the Postmaster General to fulfill his responsibilities and accelerate the modernization of the delivery vehicle fleet.

EV manufacturer Workhorse Group announced it is voluntarily withdrawing its legal challenge against the United States Postal Service (USPS). The June lawsuit addresses the USPS awarding a multibillion-dollar contract to Oshkosh Defense to produce its next fleet of mail delivery vehicles. Workhorse’s new CEO was behind the decision to forfeit the protest, citing an intention to cooperate with the government on future EVs, rather than challenge it through litigation.

In the wake of USPS’ announcement to replace its vehicle fleet with mostly gas-powered vehicles, lawmakers are asking questions about possible insider trading and seeking to ensure that the fleet purchases a minimum percentage of all-electric vehicles, as reported by Bloomberg.

The Postmaster General for the United States Postal Service (USPS) recently committed to 10% of its new fleet going full-electric. The upgrade was announced this past week and will replace 50,000-165,000 vehicles over the next 10 years. The USPS’ current ICE lineup of LLV’s (long-life vehicles) is near 30 years old.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced today that it has awarded its postal fleet replacement contract, and the government agency disappointed by not fully committing to going all-electric.