The United States Postal Service (USPS), alongside White House officials, unveiled its first set of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at its South Atlanta Sorting and Delivery Center (S&DC). Charging stations like these will be installed at hundreds of new S&DCs across the country throughout the year. Electrification and modernization of the Postal Service’s delivery fleet is part of the organization’s $40 billion investment strategy.

“The improvements we need to achieve in sustainability are an integral outgrowth of the broader modernization efforts we have undertaken through our 10-year Delivering for America plan,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said. “As we transform our operating processes and invest in new automation, new technologies, and upgraded facilities and vehicles, we will generate significant efficiencies that reduce our costs, slash our carbon footprint and minimize waste. We are grateful for the support of Congress and the Biden Administration through Inflation Reduction Act funding, which helped enable the electrification in evidence here today.”

At the launch event, USPS also showcased new battery-powered and domestically manufactured commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) delivery vehicles that will make up a portion of the Postal Service’s EV fleet. Deployment of electric delivery trucks will start in Georgia and then expand to other locations across the country throughout the year. The vehicles feature air conditioning and advanced safety technology, and are designed to meet modern operational requirements, USPS said.

As part of its 10-year Delivering for America (DFA) plan, USPS said it expects to convert approximately 400 selected sites into S&DCs nationwide. USPS said these centers will serve as the local hubs to deploy EVs along local carrier routes. As of January, the Postal Service has opened 29 S&DCs nationwide.

The charging stations displayed at the Atlanta S&DC were manufactured by Siemens. These stations will be able to charge Postal Service EVs overnight before the next day’s deliveries. The Postal Service’s first 14,000 EV chargers will be manufactured by three suppliers: Siemens, Rexel/ChargePoint and Blink.

USPS plans on procuring a total of 21,000 COTS EVs — including 9,250 from Ford — depending on market availability and operational feasibility, it said. In addition, the Postal Service anticipates adding at least 45,000 battery-electric Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs) by 2028, bringing the total number of EVs in the delivery fleet to more than 66,000.

In addition, updating and modernizing the Postal Service’s fleet will allow delivery vehicles to haul larger volumes of mail and packages, it said. For example, the Ford E-Transits displayed at the event have nearly three times the cargo capacity of the Grumman LLV delivery vehicles that the USPS currently uses.