By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Dec 2 – The U.S. Postal Service is currently using more than 2,600 electric vehicles for mail deliveries, the agency said in a letter to Congress reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.
In 2023, Congress gave USPS $3 billion under then President Joe Biden to buy electric vehicles and charging infrastructure – including $1.2 billion for EVs.
“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 the November 17 letter, adding the $3 billion has been fully obligated.
USPS said it has purchased 8,700 Ford E-Transit vehicles, of which 2,010 are delivering mail from 65 sites. USPS also has 612 specially built electric Next Generation Delivery Vehicles built by Oshkosh Defense delivering mail at 15 sites.
USPS has also commissioned 6,650 charging ports at 75 sites and said the number of EVs entering service is growing weekly.
In June, Senate Republicans were blocked from a bid to force USPS to scrap thousands of electric vehicles and charging equipment in a massive tax and budget bill.
USPS had warned that scrapping the electric vehicles would cost it $1.5 billion, including $1 billion to replace its current fleet of EVs and $500 million in EV infrastructure rendered useless.
USPS also said in the letter it has acquired 26,000 internal combustion vehicles as it works to replace its aging vehicle fleet, including 2,600 of the next-generation gas-powered Oshkosh vehicles. USPS’s older delivery vehicles dating back to the late 1980s cost more than $8,000 per year on average to maintain.
In March, the White House forced out Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who led efforts to restructure the loss-making U.S. Postal Service for nearly five years. USPS has lost more than $100 billion since 2007. President Donald Trump said in February he was considering merging the Postal Service with the Commerce Department, a move Democrats said would violate federal law.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sonali Paul)
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