Only 10 percent of the new fleet of US postal service trucks will be battery powered, despite President Biden’s desire to convert the entire government fleet, USPS chief Louis DeJoy said in a statement to Congress Wednesday. market. The other 90 percent will be powered by gas, although the trucks – which are being built by defense contractor Oshkosh – are reportedly designed to be converted into electric vehicles on the road.
When DeJoy was asked why it was not the other way around, he said he was willing to speak to the Biden government, but that the USPS does not “have the extra 3 or 4 billion [dollars] in our plan now that it would be necessary to do that. ”The USPS courier vehicles represent about a third of the entire government fleet. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The USPS announced the new generation mail truck on Tuesday after a one-year bidding process. It is paying Oshkosh nearly $ 500 million to put the vehicles into production by 2023, and the defense contractor is promising to build between 50,000 and 165,000 of them over the next ten years. They will replace the current mail trucks that have been in service for more than two decades, which were built by defense contractor Grumman.
Many of these mail trucks – known as “long-life vehicles” or LLVs – are past their expiration dates and some have even caught fire, which is not only dangerous, but has also cost the USPS a lot in repairs and maintenance. In addition, they are not equipped with modern amenities, such as airbags or air conditioning. The new trucks offer this, in addition to better ergonomics and new safety features.
Both the USPS and Oshkosh said the deal was for a mix of gas and electric versions of the new vehicle, and that they would be “fuel efficient” and “low-emission”. But they initially refused to specify what that combination would be or how they defined those terms.
“THE [new vehicles] they must be more environmentally friendly than current LLVs due to less travel required and better emission controls. These controls will decrease emissions and help improve air quality compared to the vehicles they intend to replace, ”said the USPS The Verge. “The flexible platform will allow Correios to acquire the [new vehicles] with power trains that maximize fuel efficiency, reduce operating costs and allow the incorporation of emerging technologies in the future, when they become mature and offer operational savings. ”
Several bidding companies proposed all-electric or hybrid options during the six-year search for a new truck, which was fraught with problems and delays. However, only one of these companies was still in operation during the final phase: the startup of commercial EV Workhorse. After years of struggling to generate revenue, many analysts and industry experts thought the USPS contract was Workhorse’s best chance of survival. But some thought Workhorse had a decent chance considering he was the only one launching an EV in the finals and because electric vehicles make a lot of sense in short-range delivery configurations.
Workhorse said on Wednesday that it requested “additional information from the USPS” about the decision and that “it intends to explore all avenues available to non-award winning finalists in a government bidding process”.
Some environmental groups took aim at DeJoy after the announcement of the new truck. The USPS chief has been under pressure to resign for months after accusations that he was deliberately undermining the postal service’s ability to function properly during last year’s election, which had a record number of people voting by mail.
“From undermining our democracy to delaying climate action, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy continues to fail with the United States Postal Service and the American public,” said Gina Coplon-Newfield, director of the Sierra Club Clean Transport for All campaign, in a statement. “The USPS ‘lack of commitment to electrify its fleet directly contradicts the objectives of the Biden government and the executive order to clean up pollution from US government vehicles.”
But while DeJoy may be a good scapegoat, it is unclear whether politics was at the heart of the decision to choose Oshkosh. The Trump administration has certainly spent four years displaying a disdain for clean air policies. But he was also very friendly to the people behind Workhorse. Trump himself applauded the sale of the former General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio to Lordstown Motors, which is essentially a Workhorse spinoff. Former Vice President Pence attended the presentation of the Lordstown Motors electric pickup truck (which is based on an original Workhorse design). And the Department of Energy began due diligence at Lordstown Motors for a possible loan for Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing while Trump was still in office, despite the fact that the ATVM program has been inactive for nearly a decade.