The United States Postal Service will spend $9.6 billion to electrify its entire fleet by 2026, the agency announced on Dec. 20.
The plan was unveiled almost two years after controversy erupted when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that 90 percent of the next-generation fleet would be gas-powered instead of electric, a move that would have derailed President Joe Biden’s pledge to have an all-electric government fleet by 2035.
The investment includes purchasing 60,000 delivery vehicles from Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense, a military vehicle manufacturer. Of that number, 45,000 will be electric.
USPS officials said that the agency will buy 21,000 additional vehicles from other manufacturers and no longer purchase gas-powered delivery trucks after 2026….