Oshkosh Is Ready To Switch Back To Gas-Powered Mail Trucks If Asked

The USPS finally got its hands on the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) last summer after a decade of development. The mail truck was to be the harbinger of a new era, with over 75 percent of the new fleet slated to be fully electric. Since the election, however, political winds have been wafting in a strong smell of gasoline—which could upend those plans.

As reported by Reuters, the incoming Trump administration has made no bones about its attitude towards government subsidies for EVs. In particular, the Inflation Reduction Act has come under scrutiny, and the post office is deeply involved. The Act specifically allocated $1.3 billion to pay for the USPS’s new electric vans out to 2028, along with a further $1.7 billion to install charging infrastructure.

This could prove challenging for Oshkosh Corporation, the company which won the bid to provide the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle. However, as covered by Bloomberg, the manufacturer is confident it can roll with the punches and deliver more gasoline mail trucks if that’s what the new administration is after.

Interviewed at CES, Oshkosh CEO John Pfeifer stated that his company was ready to adapt to any changes coming down the line. “We’ll do what they want us to do — supplying either gas or electric,” said Pfeifer. “A new Congress could come in and repeal, I guess, part of the IRA that hasn’t been spent.”

For now, it’s a potential problem, rather than an actual one. Pfeifer stated that neither the USPS or the incoming government had made any approaches about changing the existing order for new mail trucks. Similarly, Postmaster General Louis Dejoy has indicated to Bloomberg that he hasn’t heard anything from the incoming administration about changing the USPS’s existing EV plans.

Officially, the USPS made its purchasing decision back in late 2023. It planned to order 60,000 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles built by Oshkosh, 45,000 of which would be electric. Beyond that, the USPS had also aimed to order 14,500 commercial off-the-shelf vehicles with ICE powertrains, with a further 31,980 vehicles to be either off-the-shelf or more NGDVs, 66% of which would be battery electric. In total, 62% of the full fleet of 106,480 vehicles would be fully electric.

Since Oshkosh always planned to build ICE and EV versions of the NGDV, a switch away from electric drive would not be a total disaster. As it stands, the gasoline-powered versions will run a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine sourced from Ford, which will deliver 250 horsepower and 206 pound-feet of torque. The electric version will run a Bosch traction motor good for up to 200 horsepower at peak, or 94 horsepower continuously. Estimated range of the EV version is 70 miles from a 94 kWh battery, which was deemed suitable for 95% of all USPS routes. Both versions will be available in two- or four-wheel-drive as needed.

While both designs are ready to go, it would nonetheless be a disruption to change the USPS order at this point. When the post office released its Record of Decision in 2023, the document was a full 1,207 pages long. As much as some might disagree with the decision to purchase so many EVs, it was a long and hard process to come to that point. Also, a mail route is about as ideal a use-case for an electric vehicle as one can imagine. Amazon has already shifted a lot of its Prime-delivery fleet to electric Rivian vans.

It’s likely only further waste could come by changing that decision now. Plans have been put in place to deliver a certain amount of electric vehicles, as well as to set up infrastructure to support them well into the future. The USPS has been in desperate need of new vehicles for some time—anything that gets in the way of their timely delivery will be unwelcome and unpopular to those who deliver the mail.

Plus, our Mercedes really wants to buy the outgoing mail truck.

Image credits: USPS