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Comment by ddulaney | Hacker News Reader

How does this interact with the huge contract with Oshkosh a couple years ago to replace the LLV?

That contract was investigated, controversial, scaled back, and might end up being cancelled. Oshkosh has never built small electric delivery vehicles. Their specialty is big, heavy vehicles. Fire trucks, concrete mixers, military vehicles, etc.

Using the boring but practical electric Ford Transit van makes sense. Those things are going to take over the local commercial van market. They're already in mass production.

I imagine Ford is also a lot better at building huge quantities of vehicles than Oshkosh.

Plus USPS can buy parts from Autozone.

From the article this is a separate contract for COTS trucks, along with some gas ones from Stellantis.

I believe this is the 10% of the trucks from that contract that were to be EV

Sucks that they are not 90% EV. EVs are perfect for mail delivery, with frequent stops.

That number is outdated, and USPS revised its plans after a lawsuit and other political criticism.

> The plan drew heavy criticism and spawned a lawsuit from 16 states aiming to block the purchase.

> Since then, the USPS has slowly raised the number of EVs it plans to order. In July 2022, it estimated that at least 40 percent of its new purchases would be electric, and in December, it said it was exploring the “feasibility of achieving 100% electrification.” The agency says that it expects to invest around $9.6 billion into the initiative and expects pretty much every vehicle it buys after 2026 to be electric.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/1/23620658/usps-ford-transit...

Cool, I thought I remembered something like that but all I could find was the 10% number from a quick search. Really Happy to see it's higher.

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