The United States Postal Service (USPS) has deployed more than 2,600 battery-electric vehicles for mail delivery as part of its nationwide fleet modernisation programme, according to a recent update submitted to Congress, as the agency’s electrification strategy continues to face shifting political scrutiny.
Of the battery-electric vehicles currently in use for letter delivery, 612 are the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) produced by Oshkosh Defense and now operating at 15 locations. The remaining 2,010 vehicles are Ford Motor’s E-Transit electric vans. USPS has ordered more than 50,000 NGDVs in total, with roughly half designated as electric and the rest powered by internal combustion engines.
USPS has also purchased 8,700 Ford E-Transit vans overall, after initially ordering more than 9,000 units, Reuters reported. The agency has not detailed how the remaining vehicles beyond those used for mail delivery will be allocated, though they are expected to support parcel delivery and other logistics operations.
“We are deploying (battery electric vehicles) to routes and delivery units where the BEVs will save us money relative to internal combustion vehicles,” USPS government relations chief Peter Pastre said in a Nov. 17 letter to Congress.
While electric vehicle deployment is accelerating, the broader strategy remains politically sensitive. Last year, a coalition of 16 U.S. states led by California, along with environmental advocacy groups, withdrew a 2022 lawsuit challenging USPS’s original plan to procure a fleet that was 90% gasoline-powered and only 10% electric. The withdrawal followed USPS’s revised commitment to acquire a majority of electric vehicles.
More recently, in March 2025, two senior members of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) prepared draft legislation aimed at withdrawing about $3 billion in federal funding previously allocated for USPS electrification, according to a report by Fox News. The proposal has not yet been formally introduced in Congress.
Separate data from the USPS employee magazine show that the postal service has integrated more than 35,000 new vehicles into its fleet so far, including about 8,500 electric models. USPS plans to deploy roughly 106,000 new vehicles by 2028, including about 45,000 battery-electric NGDVs and 21,000 commercially available battery-electric vehicles.
