US Postal Service to boost purchases of electric vehicles

Postal Service said it will substantially increase the number of electric-powered vehicles it’s buying to replace its fleet of aging delivery trucks, after the Biden administration and environmental groups said the agency’s initial plan had too few electric vehicles and fell short of the administration’s climate change goals. The Environmental Protection Agency said the initial plan by the Postal Service, an independent agency, “underestimates greenhouse gas emissions, fails to consider more environmentally protective feasible alternatives and inadequately considers impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns.” The new environmental proposal effectively pauses the purchases at 84,500 total vehicles — 40% electric — even as the Postal Service seeks to buy up to 165,000 next-generation vehicles over a decade to replace delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994. Those will get 14.7 miles per gallon without air conditioning, compared to 8.4 mpg for the older vehicles, the Postal Service said. “Electric vehicles are the future of the automotive industry and that is why I have been pressing the Postal Service to purchase more of them,” said Peters, D-Mich.