A multibillion-dollar program to buy electric vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service is far behind its original schedule, plagued by manufacturing mishaps and supplier infighting that threaten a cornerstone of outgoing President Joe Biden’s fight against climate change.
The Postal Service is slated to purchase 60,000 “Next Generation Delivery Vehicles,” or NGDVs — mostly electric — from defense contractor Oshkosh, which has a long history of producing military and heavy industrial vehicles, but not postal trucks. Congress provided $3 billion for the nearly $10 billion project in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, one of Biden’s chief legislative accomplishments.
But as of November, the Postal Service had received only 93 of the Oshkosh trucks, the agency told The Washington Post — far fewer than the 3,000 originally expected by now. Significant manufacturing difficulties that were not disclosed to the Postal Service for more than a year have stymied production, according to internal company records and four people with knowledge of the events, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisals.
Among the problems: Engineers struggle to calibrate the vehicles’ air bags, according to two people familiar with the manufacturing process. When workers ran leak tests on the vehicles’ bodies and internal components, water poured out as if their oversize windows had been left open in a storm, three people said.
Currently, Oshkosh can produce just one truck per day at its South Carolina factory, according to internal company records and five people with knowledge of the production process. Company records, including emails among executives and internal progress reports, show Oshkosh originally planned to be manufacturing more than 80 vehicles per day by now.
The wide-ranging production problems have not been previously reported and were not mentioned in an inspector general audit published in October. A senior company executive tried to alert the mail agency to the problems in 2022, but was blocked by superiors, four of the people said.
“This is the bottom line: We don’t know how to make a damn truck,” said one person involved in production.
The massive delay means a project once hailed as a hallmark of Biden’s industrial and climate agenda may not take shape until long after he leaves office on Jan. 20 — or could never materialize. Republicans in Congress have pledged to repeal key funding sources for Biden’s climate investments with the GOP in power next year on Capitol Hill and at the White House, and Trump-aligned officials with designs on cutting government spending have circled the Postal Service as an area of interest.
“The days of a bailouts and handouts are over. The American people spoke loud and clear. I worry about that EV money sitting around, that it may be clawed back. I think there are lots of areas where there’s going to be significant reform over the next four years,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) told Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in a hearing this week.
This report is based on nearly 21,000 pages of government and internal Oshkosh records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act and other sources. It is also based on interviews with 20 people familiar with every phase of the truck project, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss proprietary information.
In June, the Biden administration honored the mail service’s EV commitment with a “federal sustainability award.”
In a statement, an Oshkosh spokesperson said the company was “fully committed to being a strong and reliable partner” for the Postal Service and “we remain on track to meet all delivery deadlines.”
“Since we were selected to fulfill the NGDV contract in 2021, Oshkosh and the USPS have worked closely together to design and deliver a modernized fleet with a flexible mix of American-made electric- and gas-powered vehicles that will connect every home and business across the country. New vehicles are in service today, which have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from postal carriers,” the spokesperson said.
The company did not respond to a list of detailed questions.
John Pfeifer, Oshkosh’s chief executive, told investors on Oct. 30 that the company was “really happy with where we are” and called the NGDV a “revolutionary vehicle.”
“We’re today ramping up production,” Pfeifer said. “When you go through — you take a brand-new vehicle to market, we believe, together with the Postal Service, that a prudent production schedule is better than trying to start by sprinting. So we’re ramping up today. We’ll be at full production throughout 2025.”
A Postal Service spokesperson said several issues with the NGDV program were detailed in the inspector general audit and “resolved directly with our supplier.” But the agency declined to comment on specific questions or identify which issues the report helped resolve. The spokesperson called the truck procurement “a large, successful program that for a variety of reasons had many moving parts.”
It said that any major production of a purpose-built vehicle has unique engineering requirements, and its contract with Oshkosh allows for robust performance monitoring. The Postal Service said it expects to receive 6,484 NDGVs in the current fiscal year.
“Our relationship with Oshkosh is defined by our contract, and we intend to hold Oshkosh to its contractual obligations, while recognizing the normal interplay that will need to take place in the execution and performance of an agreement of this magnitude,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re moving forward in modernizing our vehicle fleet — which will bring tremendous benefits to our organization. Under our plan, letter carriers in every state will be able to deliver mail and packages using new and modern vehicles within the next five years,” DeJoy said in a statement. “The work being done on this program demonstrates electrification and sustainability efforts can coexist — not conflict — with cost savings, efficiency gains and operational transformation priorities.”
The agency is also purchasing tens of thousands of other vehicles, including EVs, from mainstream automakers.
Biden administration officials declined to comment.
The Postal Service is slated to purchase 60,000 “Next Generation Delivery Vehicles,” or NGDVs — mostly electric — from defense contractor Oshkosh, which has a long history of producing military and heavy industrial vehicles, but not postal trucks. Congress provided $3 billion for the nearly $10 billion project in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, one of Biden’s chief legislative accomplishments.
But as of November, the Postal Service had received only 93 of the Oshkosh trucks, the agency told The Washington Post — far fewer than the 3,000 originally expected by now. Significant manufacturing difficulties that were not disclosed to the Postal Service for more than a year have stymied production, according to internal company records and four people with knowledge of the events, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisals.
Among the problems: Engineers struggle to calibrate the vehicles’ air bags, according to two people familiar with the manufacturing process. When workers ran leak tests on the vehicles’ bodies and internal components, water poured out as if their oversize windows had been left open in a storm, three people said.
Currently, Oshkosh can produce just one truck per day at its South Carolina factory, according to internal company records and five people with knowledge of the production process. Company records, including emails among executives and internal progress reports, show Oshkosh originally planned to be manufacturing more than 80 vehicles per day by now.
The wide-ranging production problems have not been previously reported and were not mentioned in an inspector general audit published in October. A senior company executive tried to alert the mail agency to the problems in 2022, but was blocked by superiors, four of the people said.
“This is the bottom line: We don’t know how to make a damn truck,” said one person involved in production.
The massive delay means a project once hailed as a hallmark of Biden’s industrial and climate agenda may not take shape until long after he leaves office on Jan. 20 — or could never materialize. Republicans in Congress have pledged to repeal key funding sources for Biden’s climate investments with the GOP in power next year on Capitol Hill and at the White House, and Trump-aligned officials with designs on cutting government spending have circled the Postal Service as an area of interest.
“The days of a bailouts and handouts are over. The American people spoke loud and clear. I worry about that EV money sitting around, that it may be clawed back. I think there are lots of areas where there’s going to be significant reform over the next four years,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) told Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in a hearing this week.
This report is based on nearly 21,000 pages of government and internal Oshkosh records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act and other sources. It is also based on interviews with 20 people familiar with every phase of the truck project, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss proprietary information.
In June, the Biden administration honored the mail service’s EV commitment with a “federal sustainability award.”
In a statement, an Oshkosh spokesperson said the company was “fully committed to being a strong and reliable partner” for the Postal Service and “we remain on track to meet all delivery deadlines.”
“Since we were selected to fulfill the NGDV contract in 2021, Oshkosh and the USPS have worked closely together to design and deliver a modernized fleet with a flexible mix of American-made electric- and gas-powered vehicles that will connect every home and business across the country. New vehicles are in service today, which have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from postal carriers,” the spokesperson said.
The company did not respond to a list of detailed questions.
John Pfeifer, Oshkosh’s chief executive, told investors on Oct. 30 that the company was “really happy with where we are” and called the NGDV a “revolutionary vehicle.”
“We’re today ramping up production,” Pfeifer said. “When you go through — you take a brand-new vehicle to market, we believe, together with the Postal Service, that a prudent production schedule is better than trying to start by sprinting. So we’re ramping up today. We’ll be at full production throughout 2025.”
A Postal Service spokesperson said several issues with the NGDV program were detailed in the inspector general audit and “resolved directly with our supplier.” But the agency declined to comment on specific questions or identify which issues the report helped resolve. The spokesperson called the truck procurement “a large, successful program that for a variety of reasons had many moving parts.”
It said that any major production of a purpose-built vehicle has unique engineering requirements, and its contract with Oshkosh allows for robust performance monitoring. The Postal Service said it expects to receive 6,484 NDGVs in the current fiscal year.
“Our relationship with Oshkosh is defined by our contract, and we intend to hold Oshkosh to its contractual obligations, while recognizing the normal interplay that will need to take place in the execution and performance of an agreement of this magnitude,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re moving forward in modernizing our vehicle fleet — which will bring tremendous benefits to our organization. Under our plan, letter carriers in every state will be able to deliver mail and packages using new and modern vehicles within the next five years,” DeJoy said in a statement. “The work being done on this program demonstrates electrification and sustainability efforts can coexist — not conflict — with cost savings, efficiency gains and operational transformation priorities.”
The agency is also purchasing tens of thousands of other vehicles, including EVs, from mainstream automakers.
Biden administration officials declined to comment.
