The United States Postal Service revealed Thursday that it has bought more than 10,000 new electric delivery trucks, up from the 5,000 it had originally expected to buy. It is part of the service’s initial $2.98 billion purchase from Oshkosh Corp. for 50,000 new delivery trucks as part of a deal to replace its ancient 30-year-old fleet.
The original proposal, which was completed in February 2021, offered Oshkosh an initial $482 million and said that the government expected to purchase up to 165,000 vehicles for $6 billion over the following decade.
However, just 10% of the vehicles under the contract would be needed to be battery electric, with the remaining 90% being gas-powered. I’m not sure if one of the stipulations of the contract was to design the ugliest vehicle possible but look at how hideous this thing looks:
Biden promised shortly after taking office to convert the federal fleet to 100% zero-emission cars by 2035. The Postal Service vehicles account for almost one-third of all federal fleet vehicles. So in order to meet Biden’s goal, the USPS will have to do much better than 10%.
The new trucks are projected to be operational by late 2023, according to the Postal Service. My hope is that the design gets updated before these things start roaming the streets.
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