US Postal Service plans fleet renewal

In Germany, many e-cars have already been transporting letters and parcels for five years. Even though they still often have problems in winter, especially when the roads are slippery and sloping, they want to constantly expand their fleet. The same goal is being pursued in Austria, even though the country's topography makes it even more difficult to deliver mail and parcels cleanly and quietly in winter. In Sweden, there are already four cities or inner cities where mail delivery is done only by bicycle, electric car or a combustion engine with renewable fuel: Besides Stockholm, these are Helsingborg, Malmö and Uppsala.

The situation is quite different in the USA. There, they also want to replace the postal fleet, but they tend to rely on combustion engines. In Europe, this is not possible because many cities have environmental zones in which combustion engines are no longer allowed. Only 5,000 of the US Postal Service's 150,000 delivery vehicles are to be electric by 2023. The complete renewal of the fleet is to cost the equivalent of 10.2 billion euros. However, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US government now want to take action against the plans. For one thing, the efficiency increase of the new vehicles is far too low compared to the old ones. In addition, the environmental impact assessment was not carried out correctly. There is a suspicion that the environmental impact assessment of the plan was not done correctly. But the US Postal Service wants to go ahead with the plan. There is no legal reason to change the programme. Nevertheless, the possibility of purchasing more than the planned 5,000 electric vehicles would be examined. Apparently, the Post is alluding to the 5.4 billion euros that Biden has earmarked for the Post in his social spending package. However, these investments have not yet been approved by the Senate. If the US Postal Service does indeed abandon the complete conversion to electric, it would be a major blow to the electric vehicle industry. The electric truck manufacturer Workhorse therefore also wants to sue the US Postal Service and thus force it to convert to electric. But it is not only the technology of the future that is at stake here. If one assumes that electric vehicles are the cleaner alternative despite increased tyre wear, the decision for 145,000 postal vehicles with internal combustion engines is a bitter setback for the environment and environmental policy. If the United States had had low-emission zones, it would probably not have occurred to the US Postal Service to abandon its plan to convert its vehicles to electric.