The United States Postal Service still intends to purchase an increasing number of electric delivery vehicles until it’s forced to do otherwise, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said at a House of Representatives hearing on Tuesday, signaling to the incoming administration that it will not likely be able to overturn the agency’s plan to purchase additional EVs without congressional intervention, Reuters reports.
Just last week, President Trump’s transition team suggested that it would seek to overturn the 2023 spending package that earmarked funds for their adoption, along with cutting other programs that encourage the uptake of electric cars. Facing questioning from legislators, DeJoy said that he would continue to operate under the 2023 guidelines until the Postal Service receives a new edict from Congress.
This is the latest in a saga that dates back to the first Trump administration, during which the Postal Service was first allocated funding for the purchase of a new fleet of delivery vehicles. The original bill included provisions for adding more than 160,000 new vans, with the crown jewel in the contract going to Oshkosh Defense, which would have built its replacement vehicles in South Carolina. Under that plan, only 10% of the new vehicles added to the USPS fleet would have been electric.
The incoming administration has support from South Carolina Republican representative William Timmons, who represents the district where Oshkosh is slated to build the new vans.
“There’s no reason that we should spend a billion plus more dollars to impose a green new deal mandate on the Post Office,” Timmons told the wire service. “I can promise you that Congress is about to fix it. I look forward to working with the incoming Trump administration to right this ship.”
After Biden took office in 2020, his administration questioned the wisdom of such a low EV expansion rate and asked Congress to renegotiate the deal. After much back-and-forth, the president and legislators arrived at a new formula. Under these provisions, USPS increased its minimum order of Oshkosh-built electric vans to 45,000 (a 300% increase) and baked in an order for nearly 10,000 electric Ford E-Transit vans to boot.
DeJoy expects USPS purchases in 2025 will be split roughly evenly between EV and gas-powered delivery vans; next-generation delivery vehicles bought starting in 2026 are expected to be exclusively electric, assuming the purchase plan is not modified.
DeJoy said USPS pays Oshkosh approximately $20,000 more for the electrified variants of its delivery van, versus gas-powered ones; each off-the-shelf EV (Ford E-Transit et al.) carries a premium of approximately $10,000 over its equivalent gas-powered model. The service expects to spend nearly $10 billion on vehicle acquisitions through 2028.
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