USPS EV Trucks Are Still Funny-Looking, Now Harder to Kill Off

Car and Driver

8 hours ago

A new ruling by the U.S. Senate parliamentarian requires a supermajority to scrap existing U.S. Postal Service EV plans.
There are 7200 EVs in the USPS fleet, with new replacements for the old fleet coming in at a split of 50/50 for EV and combustion power.
The Oshkosh Next Gen delivery van has polarizing styling, but the mail carriers love it.
The battle over the U.S. Postal Service's electrification plans had a new front drawn recently, with U.S. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough declaring that a supermajority vote would be required to scrap existing EVs and charging infrastructure. Currently, the USPS has purchased 7200 EVs and spent $500 million on charging infrastructure, and the tax and spending bill before Congress had been looking to overturn the electrification mandate set under the Biden administration.
That mandate laid out provisions for a minimum of 45,000 electric delivery vans, with an additional 10,000 Ford E-Transit vans ordered on top of that figure. The USPS fleet of 160,000 delivery vehicles has been being replaced with a near 50/50 split between EVs and combustion-powered machines, and by next year the replacements would be all EVs.
The original Grumman LLV delivery vans used by the USPS were an improvement over the buckboard Jeep DJs they replaced, but that replacement dates back to the 1970s. The Oshkosh Next Generation Delivery Vehicles might look like background traffic in a Pixar film, but they are a huge improvement for comfort and safety, and already beloved by mail carriers.
Caleb Miller
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Car and Driver
Politics aside, electrification of mail delivery is one of the more easily planned fleet rollouts. A fire truck, ambulance, or other emergency service vehicle may service a particular area, but it doesn't have a set route. A mail carrier van runs the same path several times a week, so fleet managers can plot out service, charging times, and so on. Further, with all that stopping and starting, battery regeneration saves wear on brakes.
Canada Post
Canada Post's Morgan Olson C250e electric delivery truck.
North of the border, Canada Post has been replacing and supplementing its fleet of hybrid Ford Transit vans with the Morgan Olson C250 (above). Available as the all-electric C250e, with a battery-powered driveline sourced from Rivian, this conventional step van isn't as radical-looking as the USPS Next Gen machine, but it serves the same purpose and is based on the same pragmatic reasoning.
With a supermajority requirement in place, the USPS fleet replacement rules will likely generate further legislation around timelines, with more debate to be had. The USPS points out that simply canceling contracts, mothballing existing vehicles, and ripping up infrastructure would create considerable waste, some $1.5 billion lost.
Scott Olson via Getty
Grumman LLV trucks are outdated.
Meanwhile, the era of the Grumman LLV simply can't persist. Especially in these hot summer months, the vans are too hot, too hard on mail carriers, and are built to 1970s safety standards. Whether pure battery EV, hybrid, or small-displacement combustion power, neither rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor political wrangling will stay the USPS fleet from its much needed modernization.
Brendan McAleer
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. Read full bio