Ford Bags a Contract by the US Postal Services to Provide 9,250 e-Transits as Electric Postal Vehicles

In an effort to transition to electric delivery vans, the US Postal Service will buy 9,250 off-the-shelf Ford E-Transits, with deliveries starting at the end of this year.

As part of its strategy to replace its fleet of Grumman LLVs that are more than 30 years old, USPS has recently started experimenting with electrification. The defence contractor Oshkosh was first given the contract after a protracted bidding procedure, with a promise to buy just 10% of electric vehicles. The remaining 90% would consist of gas-guzzling trucks with mpg ratings as low as 8.6, which is comparable to the first-generation Grumman LLVs.

In addition to the projected electric mix, the choice of vehicles needed to be made. There were other offers for purpose-built vehicles, but once Oshkosh’s bid was approved, fresh concerns surfaced about whether the USPS would be able to scale implementation quickly enough with purpose-built vehicles from a single manufacturer.

Many others believed that it would make sense to include off-the-shelf delivery vehicles in the mix so that USPS wouldn’t be dependent on a single manufacturer and could buy trucks that are currently in production. In order to speed up the electrification process, USPS stated in December that it will buy 21,000 “commercial off-the-shelf” electric cars.

The post office said that it is investing over $10 billion to electrify its ageing fleet. This includes buying at least 66,000 electric delivery vans over the next five years and putting in place a cutting-edge charging infrastructure at hundreds of postal facilities nationwide. The budget includes $3 billion in financing authorised by Congress last year as part of a historic climate and health strategy.