WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers on Wednesday that the Postal Service had committed to buying 10% electric vehicles as part of its multibillion-dollar plan to retire its 30-year-old fleet of delivery vehicles.
The Postal Service said on Tuesday it had awarded a $482 million contact to Oshkosh Defense to finalize vehicle production. The contract, which could be worth more than $6 billion in total, allows for delivery of between 50,000 and 165,000 of the vehicles over 10 years, which will be a mix of internal combustion-powered and battery-electric vehicles. “We don’t have $3 or $4 extra billion in our plan” to buy a nearly fully electric fleet, DeJoy said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)