America Postal Service is not pinning all its electrification hopes on next-gen mail delivery vehicles. The service has signed a contract to purchase 9,250 Ford E-Transit electrical vans, with the primary items arriving in December. The handover ought to be full by the top of 2024, Ford adds. The USPS can also be inserting its early orders for over 14,000 charging stations for its amenities throughout the nation.
The USPS already plans to purchase at the least 60,000 of its Subsequent Era Supply Autos (NGDV) by 2028, with 75 p.c of them being electrical. The Ford vans are a part of an extra plan to purchase 21,000 “off-the-shelf” EVs. Postmaster Common Louis DeJoy says this helps the USPS rapidly act on a technique that improves mail service and dealing circumstances whereas holding prices down for the self-sufficient company. The entire automobile funding is predicted to price $9.6 billion, together with $3 billion in funding due to the Inflation Reduction Act.
The charging community might not develop as rapidly. The USPS expects to offer chargers to at the least 75 places throughout the subsequent yr, however does not estimate the way it will broaden in following years.
The general EV push represents a pointy break from the preliminary plans. The USPS initially anticipated that the majority of its NGDV orders can be for gas-based vans. The Biden administration fought that approach, claiming that the USPS beneath DeJoy ignored Environmental Safety Company recommendation, rejected public hearings and relied on “biased” estimates. The service challenged the administration earlier than relenting and shifting most of its purchases to electrical fashions.
The transition will play an essential half within the authorities’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions for itself and the nation at giant. The USPS represents the most important federal automobile fleet — its EV purchases can have a big influence relative to different companies.
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