Postal Service’s Electric Ambition Stalls as Gasoline Deliveries Multiply

The United States Postal Service’s (USPS) ambitious push for an entirely electric mail fleet is facing significant setbacks, with new figures revealing the program may be decades away from its target completion despite nearly $3 billion in taxpayer funding already committed.

Following intense lobbying by the Biden administration under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the postal service received hundreds of millions of dollars to transition toward battery-powered delivery trucks. However, USPS officials have confirmed that only a small fraction of these funds has yielded tangible results: specifically, just 612 electric vehicles are currently operational nationwide, serving barely 15 locations.

USPS Vice President Peter Pastre reported this alarming shortfall in response to Senator Joni Ernst’s concerns. By November 17th, despite spending approximately $1.7 billion of the allocated funds (nearly half of what has been spent overall on the electric vehicle program), only a fraction—62 out of nearly 1,500 ordered—has actually entered postal service fleets.

Ernst, who chairs the Senate’s Department of Government Efficiency caucus and has publicly described this effort as “a boondoggle,” sent an inquiry seeking records under the Freedom of Information Act. Her letter obtained by Newsmax highlights a stark contradiction: while directing $3 billion towards electric vehicles, the agency continues purchasing nearly 40,000 new gasoline-powered delivery trucks.

The pace of production has been particularly sluggish from Oshkosh Defense, which received nearly all the initial funding and is tasked with building the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV). Production ramp-up was expected to reach a rate of up to 80 vehicles per day by December 2024, but officials confirmed that the company built just one truck in its first year.

Adding to the concerns, Pastre also revealed that while 612 NGDVs have been deployed, another 6,727 electric Ford E-Transit vans purchased from other manufacturers are incompatible with standard postal routes because they remain left-hand drive models. These vehicles cannot be used until right-hand versions become available.

Despite the limited deployment, USPS claims it has installed over 6,000 charging stations—a figure officials believe contradicts the actual number of electric vehicles deployed. The agency maintains all $3 billion allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act is “available for rescission.”

Meanwhile, Joni Ernst called for a straightforward solution: suspend funding until more transparent accounting and clearer timelines emerge. She stated, “As if that was not bad enough, [USPS] purchased 6,727 additional EVs that aren’t even being used.”