EPA and White House rebuke USPS over delivery van

The bus in question is Oshkosh Defense’s Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV). This is a USPS-designed orderer with features like right-hand steering wheel, sliding doors, and headroom. It is the successor to the Grumman LLV, which lives up to its Long Life Vehicle name by having been in use since 1987.

Compared to that LLV, however, the consumption gain would be minimal, we learn from the EPA via Reuters. Although the NGDV will also be available in an electric version, the majority of buses will in principle be powered by a Ford petrol engine. The environmental watchdog states that in practice that version will achieve a consumption of 8.6 ‘MPG’, or 1 to 3.7. A strikingly small difference with the old Grumman, who, according to the same data, makes it to 1 in 3.5. These are of course bizarre figures for a passenger car, but for a petrol bus that drives from letterbox to letterbox, it doesn’t even seem that crazy.

Compared to the LLV, the NGDV is larger and more luxurious with air conditioning, among other things. However, the very limited consumption gains are not in line with Biden’s ambitions to rapidly electrify the government’s fleet, of which the buses of the national postal company are an important part.

The government has therefore urged USPS to reconsider the tender, which will involve $6 billion over the next 10 years and up to some 165,000 vehicles. Electric buses would be strongly preferred and would provide a huge environmental benefit.

USPS states in a response that it understands the call, but at the same time emphasizes that it is an independent body. According to the postal company, a fleet of fully electric buses is simply not financially justifiable at the moment. However, the buses can be converted to electric in the future, even if they started their life with a fuel engine on board.