Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is proposing a bill to end the U.S. Postal Service plan to buy electric vehicles for its fleet of delivery vehicles.
Thousands of trucks have been ordered, but Ernst said by this spring the Wisconsin contractor making some of those EVs had only delivered 100 to the Postal Service. “They are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract,” Ernst said. “…We know that electric vehicles don’t perform as well in the northern climates, so it didn’t make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force.
A bill President Biden signed in 2022 provided $1.2 billion to the Postal Service to buy electric vehicles. “We need to be smart about the way we are providing services through the federal government and that was not a smart move,” Ernst said.
Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, calls her bill the “Return to Sender Act.” She said whatever hasn’t been spent buying EVs to deliver the mail should be returned to the government. The U.S. Postal Service currently has about 7200 electric vehicles. “Next Generation Delivery Vehicles” are being made by Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense and officials say the U.S. Postal Service would face substantial costs if its contract to buy EVs from Oshkosh is cancelled. The Postal Service is also buying over 9000 e-Transit electric vans from Ford.
