Your eyes are getting a much needed reprieve as the United States Postal Service has quietly revealed the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) has been delayed.
According to a court filing noticed by Reuters, the ugly duckling of the delivery world has been pushed back until June of 2024. That’s a significant delay as deliveries were originally slated to begin this October.
It’s not entirely clear what caused the delay, but the publication said the filing also revealed the Postal Service intends to “file a supplemental environmental impact statement to modify its next-generation delivery vehicle acquisition program by June 30.” We’ll likely learn more about that in the coming weeks, but last December the USPS announced plans to acquire 106,000 new vehicles including at least 66,000 EVs. At least 45,000 of them will be electric NGDVs, while the others will be commercial off-the-shelf electric vehicles.
More: At Least 75% Of US Postal Service NGDVs To Be Electric
Fast forward to 2023 and the Postal Service ordered 9,250 Ford E-Transits and 14,000 electric vehicle charging stations in February. At the time, the service said it “plans to begin building out its charging infrastructure across a minimum of 75 locations within the next 12 months” before adding infrastructure to “many additional facilities as a part of our delivery vehicle electrification strategy.”
Getting back to the NGDV, it’s been controversial for more than its looks as various departments and officials have battled over the electrification strategy. As we’ve previously reported, the Postal Service originally wanted just 10% to be electric as they had a “significantly higher total cost of ownership than the ICE NGDV.”
This infuriated environmentalists, who pointed out the ICE-powered NGDVs average a dismal 8.6 mpg with the air conditioner running. After numerous back-and-forths, the percentage of electric NGDVs has crept higher and higher.
