The United States Postal Service has debuted the first set of its planned rollout of electric vehicle charging stations.
The first stations were unveiled at the South Atlanta Sorting and Delivery Center, and more will be installed at hundreds of new centers across the country. The stations will power the USPS’ EV fleet, which will be the nation’s largest EV fleet, USPS said.
The electrification of the delivery fleet is part of a $40 billion investment strategy to upgrade and improve the USPS processing, transportation, and delivery networks.
In addition to announcing the first charging stations, USPS also unveiled its new battery-powered and domestically manufactured commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) delivery vehicles, which will make up a portion of the organization’s electric fleet of vehicles. The electric trucks will first be deployed in Georgia before expanding to other locations across the country throughout the year.
The postal service is in the midst of its 10-year Delivering for America plan, which includes converting roughly 400 sites into sorting and delivery centers. The sites will not only provide faster and more reliable mail and package delivery, they will also act as local hubs to deploy EVs along carrier routes.
The EV push was also supported by the $3 billion in congressional funding appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation has helped usher in a wave of renewable energy projects thanks to its funding incentives and grants.
“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 in a statement. “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.”
USPS plans to procure a total of 21,000 COTS EVs in its plan, adding at least 45,000 battery-electric next generation delivery vehicles by 2028. The total number of EVs in the fleet is expected to reach 66,000, and USPS said it will explore making all its delivery vehicles electric.
