The United States Postal Service mentioned that it’s going to add 66,000 fully electric delivery vehicles to its growing older and polluting fleet of vehicles. The mail company agreed to spend $9.6 billion on 106,000 “next generation delivery vehicles,” which incorporates $3 billion secured by way of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. After 2026, USPS will solely buy EVs.

It’s a major shift from the USPS’s earlier proposal, which included solely 40 % EVs out of a full order of 84,000 supply autos. And that deal got here after a fair much less climate-friendly one that may have solely seen 10,019 EVs being added to the fleet. But the fixed pushback from Democrats and the Biden administration, which is requiring all federal car purchases to be emissions-free by 2035, lastly resulted in a major change in coverage from USPS.

White House Senior Advisor John Podesta believes the plan will end in a USPS fleet that’s absolutely electrical. It additionally “significantly reduces vehicles miles traveled in the network, and places USPS at the forefront of the clean transportation revolution,” Podesta said in a White House press launch. The mail service nonetheless has to exchange its present 217,000-plus fleet of vehicles, lots of that are over 30 years outdated and don’t have security options like airbags or air con, amongst different issues.

The $3 billion can even go towards constructing the USPS’s EV charging infrastructure, which incorporates “tens of thousands” charging stations, creating a wiser community that may assist make deliveries extra environment friendly. “Moving packages from point A to point B in a way that’s cleaner, more cost-effective, and accelerating toward an electric vehicle future stamped ‘Made in America’ — this is the Biden climate strategy on wheels,” National Climate Advisor to the president Ali Zaidi said.

The USPS is primarily seeking to get its fleet from protection contractor Oshkosh, which can present 60,000 autos, with 45,000 of them being electrical. But the mail company can even look to different automakers for an additional 46,000 vans, with 21,000 of these being EVs.