USPS needs electric vehicles—but they don’t need to be electric cars

The barrier to USPS’s electrification is, apparently, a lack of funding. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy described the charging stations and infrastructure necessary for electric vehicles as being too expensive for the current USPS budget. What this perspective fails to recognize is that LEVs are far cheaper than electric cars and trucks. Even beyond the fact that LEVs don’t require charging stations and additional infrastructure, purchasing an e-bike costs less than one-third of the cost of a truck. And that doesn’t even account for the lifetime cost savings associated with truck ownership, including gas, insurance, parts, and so on.