• Trump transition weighs plan to cancel USPS contracts to build large EV fleet
    
    Postal service plans to spend billions on EV chargers and roughly 66,000 new trucks Contract cancellation likely part of sweeping executive order on EVs

Dec 6 (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s transition team is considering canceling the U.S. Postal Service’s contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The move, which could be unveiled in the early days of Trump’s administration that begins on Jan. 20, is in line with Trump’s campaign promises to roll back President Joe Biden’s efforts to decarbonize U.S. transportation to fight climate change – an agenda Trump has said is unnecessary and potentially damaging to the economy.

Reuters has previously reported that Trump is planning to kill a $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases, and plans to roll back Biden’s stricter fuel-efficiency standards.

The sources told Reuters that Trump’s transition team is now reviewing how it can unwind the postal service’s multibillion-dollar contracts, including with Oshkosh (OSK.N), and Ford (F.N) for tens of thousands of battery-driven delivery trucks and charging stations.

Oshkosh shares fell by roughly 5% to 105.65 per share after the Reuters report.

  • azimir@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    Hey look! Let’s just raise a huge middle finger to what’s left of our ecosystems.

    How did it go? Yes, humanity was destroyed, but for one moment we maximized profits!

      • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Because they’re heated and actually safe to drive and don’t break down every two months like the old mail vehicles.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        3 days ago

        They’ll still get the gas powered ones. Pretty much have to; those old mail trucks are far past their expiration date.

        • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          You’re assuming trump intends to keep the USPS. He wants to destroy/privatise it. He said so all the way back in 2021, but at the time, didn’t have a mandate to actually accomplish it.

          His cronies stand to make billions if the USPS is dismantled and all mail and shipping can go through their companies instead.

    • Godort@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      At this point, it’s not really about maximizing profits, it’s about trying to undo every change Biden made

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        At this point, it’s not really about maximizing profits, it’s about trying to undo every change Biden made

        Its even worse. The new truck was likely by Dejoy, Trump’s own appointee.

              • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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                3 hours ago

                Trump chose Dejoy to lead the Post Office. Dejoy is head of the Post Office. The Post Office chose this new EV truck. Therefore the new EV truck is a product of Trump’s choice. Now Trump is trying to kill his (by proxy) chosen EV truck.

                • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 hour ago

                  Ah gotcha. I don’t think Dejoy is a green advocate or anything. Congress gave the postal service 3B dollars to invest in electric vehicles, and that’s what they started doing. They are cheaper if you amortize costs over a decade.

      • mhague@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        The way he talked about Putin making Obama look dumb… he thinks that when you act like an asshole and tear down what someone built that it makes the other person look bad.

        • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          That’s cause he’s a bully. He’s only ever brought people down to bring himself up. He thinks this is the same thing.

    • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Those trucks get like six miles to the gallon, they’re a massive liability on American finances. If the average price of gas changes by a cent that’s something like nearly a million dollars difference. This isn’t maximizing profit, this is just being petty to own the libs.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        18 hours ago

        In case anyone wants to do math, it’s actual MPG is a 17 combination. In real world settings it gets 8 - 10 MPG. From recent hearing EV USPS truck costs 20k more than ICE variant. The new Oshkosh vehicle uses 1.5kWh supposedly.

        If anyone was curious the new replacement ICE variant should get 8.5 to 10.5 MPG.

        Grumman absolutely knocked it out of the park with that LLV design for it being 4 decades ago.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Trump doesn’t care. He’s going to be dead in a few years and as far as he’s concerned, the entire universe could instantly implode afterward.

      In fact, he probably thinks the universe ends when his finite energy battery that keeps his fat ass from exercising gives out.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        3 days ago

        I think you’re under some misconceptions about how this has happened. The old trucks are completely non-viable. Way past their expected lifespan. They all need to go. If there was a time to phase out the old trucks, it was about 20 years ago.

        The new trucks come in EV and gas flavors. The EV version only has a 70 mile range, but that’s plenty for many city/suburban routes. So they’re putting them in where they make sense and everything else gets the gas version. Over time, a longer range EV version could take over the vast majority of routes, if not all of them.

          • frezik@midwest.social
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            3 days ago

            They got those because the Gremlins are falling apart. They’re not likely to be scrapped. They’re probably going to be sold at auction a few years from now.

            USPS doesn’t like selling the old Gremlins at auction because they’re sensitive about anyone impersonating a mail carrier (though a few have slipped through into private hands). Nobody else operates them, so any Gremlin looks like a mail carrier. A Metris, though, is just another van, and a quick paint job to remove the USPS logos is all they need.