The United States Postal Service (USPS) is set to expand its fleet with 9,250 commercially available battery electric vehicles (BEVs). It is also looking at deploying more than 14,000 charging stations at Postal Service facilities.
USPS’s total investment in EVs is expected to reach $9.6 billion. It intends acquisitions over the next five years, as per the December 2022 plan, of a 75 percent electric fleet of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV). It will be 100 percent electric after 2026.
USPS would more than double its planned electric delivery vehicles purchases, and will buy at least 66,000 EVs through 2028. It will also buy 9,250 2023 and 2024 model year Ram ProMaster vans from Chrysler-parent Stellantis. This makes the federal company’s contract for Ford and Stellantis worth $1.027 billion.
Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General, said they are looking at simultaneously improving service, reduce costs, grow revenue and improve the working environment for USPS’s employees. “Electrification of our vehicle fleet is now an important component of these initiatives. We have developed a strategy that mitigates both cost and risk of deployment which enable execution on this initiative to begin now.”
According to the official statement, the specific locations for deployment of the vehicles and infrastructure have not yet been finalized and will depend on route characteristics. The Postal Service plans to begin building out its charging infrastructure across a minimum of 75 locations within the next 12 months, and to continue the infrastructure build out in the succeeding years at many additional facilities as a part of our delivery vehicle electrification strategy.
It should be noted that the Postal Service is committed to the fiscally responsible and mission capable roll-out of EVs for America’s largest and oldest federal fleet. USPS has assessed its operational and infrastructure build-out capacity, financial position, including IRA funds and vehicle mix deployment over the past 12 months.
