Ford will supply over 9,000 E-Transit electric vans to the U.S. Postal Service this year as the USPS moves toward electrification.
Today, the USPS unveiled the first set of EV chargers installed at one of its facilities. The first units were built and installed at the South Atlanta Sorting and Delivery Center.
This is the first of hundreds of new stations across the United States that will be installed this year, powering the EVs that will eventually be responsible for carrying the mail in the United States.
The USPS has a $40 billion investment strategy to upgrade, update, and improve the processing, transportation, and delivery of mail, some of which is set aside for bringing the vehicle fleet to this century.
The USPS showcased new battery-powered and domestically manufactured commercial off-the-shelf, or COTS, delivery vehicles that will make up a portion of the Postal Service’s fleet of EVs. The first vehicles will hit the streets in Georgia, then expand to other areas of the country.
Some of the vehicles were built by Ford, and although the USPS wants to add 21,000 COTS EVs to its fleet for its transition, they will come from different manufacturers.
9,250 will come from Ford in the form of E-Transits, which have major advantages over the Grumman LLV delivery vehicles that the USPS currently uses for delivery vehicles. One of the most important is cargo space.
E-Transit vehicles offer three times the cargo capacity of the Grumman LLV vehicles, which will provide a variety of benefits. Aside from being able to carry more mail and packages, this will translate to other advantages, like a reduction in inefficient transportation, better delivery operations, and eliminating the need for second trips carriers may take to deliver high volumes of packages.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.