After pressure from several quarters, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced an increase in its EV share and is targeting 40 percent of its new fleet to use electric powertrains.
The USPS previously set to purchase 165,000 new vehicles from Oshkosh Defense, with 10 percent of the vehicles being EVs under the initial procurement plan. However, after receiving strong criticism, this share was later increased to 20%. But even though it has been increased to 20 percent, the criticism continues.
A total of 16 US states and environmental groups have filed lawsuits against the procurement plans. The USPS is accused of carrying out a flawed and illegal environmental analysis. In addition, the USPS is said to have signed the contract before completing the draft environmental review.
Now the USPS says it will acquire 50,000 trucks from Oshkosh, half of which will use electric powertrains. USPS will also buy another 34,500 commercially available vehicles, electric models, to make four in ten trucks in its delivery fleet zero-emission vehicles, adding up to the 40% mentioned above EV share.
Despite making significant improvements, activists still want the USPS fleet to consist of at least 75 percent electric vehicles. It was also found that 95 percent of shipping routes are suitable for electrification.
USPS claims network improvements and route optimizations that have allowed them to introduce shortened delivery vehicle procurement intervals.
The new delivery vehicles are expected to start serving postal routes by the end of 2023.
