Much ado has been made about the fact that the United States Postal Service (USPS) recently decided to replace its aging fleet of delivery vehicles with a brand-new, next-generation model from Oshkosh Defense. Though some of those vehicles will feature all-electric power, others will be equipped with a gas Ford engine, though that won’t be the only future USPS mail carrier. In fact, the post office already employs a handful of Transit Connects, and as Ford Authority reported last December, at least one “off-the-shelf” Ford E-Transit. Now, USPS has announced that it will indeed expand its EV fleet with the purchase of 9,250 additional E-Transit vans.
This order helps further the post office’s goal of going all-electric by purchasing vehicles that are already in production, as each of its E-Transit vans will remain left-hand drive in terms of configuration. To support those vans, the agency will also install 14,000 chargers at various locations around the U.S., all of which is part of a $9.6 billion dollar investment in overhauling its entire fleet in the coming years.
The first batch of USPS E-Transit vans is expected to arrive this December, but they will soon be joined by a large number of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV). Production of the replacement for the Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV) is expected to ramp up over the next five years, helping to electrify 75 percent of the USPS fleet before it stops purchasing ICE vehicles altogether by 2026.
“We are moving forward with our plans to simultaneously improve our service, reduce our cost, grow our revenue, and improve the working environment for our employees. Electrification of our vehicle fleet is now an important component of these initiatives,” said Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General. “We have developed a strategy that mitigates both cost and risk of deployment – which enable execution on this initiative to begin now. I again want to thank the Administration officials and members of Congress who have assisted us in this initiative. Each has shown genuine understanding that our movement toward electrification must be thoughtful and deliberate, must appropriately manage risk, and must be consistent with our primary delivery mission for the American people.”
We’ll have more on the E-Transit soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Transit news and non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
Too bad they didn’t think of that before they went ahead with that quagmire with that purpose built van that appears to be a joke befoe the first one is even in service.
Good move.
To the extent that it makes sense (door window height etc), USPS should ask congress for an exemption allowing it to import European RHD models.
Why give Europen mfgs access? The US has a 10% tariff on Euro coming into the US. Euro has a 25% tariff on US autos going into Europe. That is not equitable.
Want to create US jobs, especially mfg jobs? Just mandate when tax payer money is being spent, it should be spent HERE.
Be it cars, trucks, farm equipment or photo copiers.
I’m looking at it from the standpoint that Ford would be unlikely to tool or disrupt production to make super small quantity RHD Transits in the USA.
A goodly number of RHD transits could replace the future custom USPS vehicle.
A RHD transit would be cheaper than the custom vehicle.
I don’t think RHD transits could replace the custom vehicle entirely because of issues with ingress/egress, door config and mailbox height.