The United States Postal Service leadership, alongside White House officials, unveiled the agency's first set of electric vehicle charging stations for electric delivery vehicles at the South Atlanta Sorting and Delivery Center (S&DC).

Charging stations will be installed at hundreds of new S&DCs across the country throughout the year and will power what the Postal Services said will be the nation’s largest EV fleet.

Electrification and modernization of the Postal Service’s delivery fleet is part of the organization’s $40 billion investment strategy to upgrade and improve the USPS processing, transportation, and delivery networks.

Electrifying the Nation's Largest Fleet

During the Jan. 22 event, the USPS also showcased new battery-powered and domestically manufactured commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Ford E-Transit delivery vehicles that will make up a portion of the Postal Service’s EV fleet.

The USPS plans on procuring a total of 21,000 COTS EVs — including 9,250 from Ford — depending on market availability and operational feasibility, Government Fleetreported in March 2023.

In addition, the Postal Service anticipates adding at least 45,000 battery-electric Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs) by 2028, bringing the total number of EVs in the delivery fleet to more than 66,000.

NGDV acquisitions delivered in 2026 or later are expected to be entirely electric.

The Postal Service announced these targets following backlash from the Biden Administration, lawmakers, and advocacy groups.

The vehicles purchased as part of the anticipated plan will begin to replace the Postal Service's aging delivery fleet of more than 220,000 vehicles, Government Fleetpreviously reported.

This represents one of the largest commitments to vehicle electrification in the nation, according to the Postal Service. The agency will also continue to explore the feasibility of achieving 100% electrification for its delivery vehicle fleet.

The deployment of electric delivery trucks will start in Georgia and then expand to other locations across the country throughout the year.

The vehicles feature air conditioning and advanced safety technology and are designed to meet modern operational requirements.

“In every neighborhood in America, people know their postal carrier and recognize the USPS vehicle driving down their street,” said John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. “The work USPS is doing to electrify those vehicles is making EVs commonplace on every road and street in our country, while reducing air pollution and increasing comfort and safety for the dedicated public servants who deliver our mail."

The charging stations displayed at the Atlanta S&DC were manufactured by Siemens. These stations will be able to efficiently charge Postal Service EVs overnight prior to the next day’s deliveries.

The Postal Service’s first 14,000 EV chargers will be manufactured by three suppliers: Siemens, Rexel/ChargePoint, and Blink.

In December 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order asking the U.S. government to buy only EVs for the federal fleet by 2035. While the USPS was exempt from the order, a spokesperson has previously toldGovernment Fleet that the Postal Service hopes to follow the same precedent.

Delivering for America

As part of its 10-year Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service expects to convert approximately 400 selected sites into S&DCs nationwide.

These centers — which provide faster and more reliable mail and package delivery over a greater geographic area — will serve as the local hubs to deploy EVs along local carrier routes. As of January 2024, the Postal Service has opened 29 S&DCs nationwide. 

“The improvements we need to achieve in sustainability are an integral outgrowth of the broader modernization efforts we have undertaken through our 10-year Delivering for America plan,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said. “As we transform our operating processes and invest in new automation, new technologies, and upgraded facilities and vehicles, we will generate significant efficiencies that reduce our costs, slash our carbon footprint and minimize waste. We are grateful for the support of Congress and the Biden Administration through Inflation Reduction Act funding, which helped enable the electrification in evidence here today.”

In addition, updating and modernizing the Postal Service’s fleet will allow delivery vehicles to haul larger volumes of mail and packages.

For example, the Ford E-Transits displayed at today’s event have nearly three times the cargo capacity of the Grumman LLV delivery vehicles that the Postal Service currently uses.

Increased cargo capacity will reduce inefficient transportation, improve delivery operations and eliminate the need for many second trips carriers take to deliver high volumes of packages.