Going postal, B'gosh

local delivery

extended range

EV giant with a contract for 100k USPS trucks has suddenly offered to convert them to gas

The company behind the United States Postal Service's all-electric mail trucks has said it would be prepared to switch to gas vehicles. 

Oshkosh Corp., which provides the so-called 'Duck' mail trucks, has said it is prepared to U-turn if USPS cuts back orders for EVs under the second Trump term. 

Trump, who takes office on January 20, has long criticized funding brought in by the Biden administration to transition to an electric mail fleet. 

President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided $3 billion over a decade for the Postal Service to become all-electric, including both trucks and charging stations. 

USPS said in October last year that it plans to buy more than 100,000 mail trucks through 2028, of which at least 62 percent will be EVs. 

Oshkosh has received its first order from USPS for 50,000 electric trucks, valued at $2.98 billion.  

But John Pfeifer, CEO of Oshkosh, said the company would be prepared to make the switch back to gas if necessary.  

'We'll do what they want us to do - supplying either gas or electric,' he said in an interview at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, Bloomberg reported. 'A new Congress could come in and repeal, I guess, part of the IRA that hasn't been spent.'

Before finally bowing to overwhelming pressure from Congress and professional enviro grifters, the USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy fiercely opposed converting the entire truck fleet to electric due to the huge cost not only of buying the vehicles themselves, but also the necessary upgrading the electrical service to the nation’s 35,000 post offices. Congress has printed $3 billion to pay for converting half the fleet, leaving the rapidly failing USPS (when was the last time you mailed paid a bill by mail? Sent a letter?) to come up with another $3 billion to buy the rest of the trucks, and billions more for those electrical upgrades and charging stations.

It’s understandable that Trump will see this as an irresistible target for elimination, and Oshkosh is smart to realize this.