12/16/2023 0 Comments Workhorse logoHow the USPS mail trucks could still go fully electric A 2020 report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) detailed why: a lot of the prototypes were awful and broke down. But the bid process dragged on for years. It originally selected six companies (or teams of companies) to work up prototypes. The USPS set out to replace the current mail truck in 2015 with a plan to put the new vehicles on the road by 2018. Oshkosh had worked with Ford during the bidding process, but the automaker has repeatedly declined to comment on whether it was involved in the defense contractor’s final pitch, which looks much different from spy shots of earlier prototypes based off the Transit van. The USPS agreed to invest $482 million up front to help ready the new vehicle. Oshkosh has said it is still finalizing the design of the new vehicle, and that they won’t hit the road until 2023. That process will likely take place under a protective order, though, so Workhorse’s lawyers may ultimately only be able to tell the company whether or not they have a good chance at winning. “They will get to see everything, the whole file, how evaluated, the award memo,” a person familiar with the Postal Service’s contracting process told The Verge earlier this year. In requesting that the complaint be sealed, Workhorse told the court that the document “contains confidential and proprietary source selection and proposal information” about its bid, and that future filings will or are likely to contain similar information about competitors’ bids.īut of the options that were on Workhorse’s table, this one may prove the most effective at helping the company’s legal team understand why the USPS went with Oshkosh. Oshkosh agreed to build between 50,000 to 165,000 of the trucks over 10 years, but the USPS says it needs billions more in funding from Congress in order to tip the balance of the fleet more towards electric. The defense contractor has said the gas vehicles will be “fuel-efficient low-emission” but has not qualified those claims. The Postal Service and Oshkosh revealed the new vehicle in February, and said that it is designed to run on both gas and electric drivetrains. Workhorse was one of three companies that submitted final bids to the USPS last year, and was the only one proposing to build an entirely electric mail fleet. “We are proud that the USPS selected Oshkosh Defense to fulfill the needs of the NGDV program and we look forward to getting these highly capable vehicles into the hands of mail carriers.” Hittle, Oshkosh Defense’s director of global marketing and communications, said in an email to The Verge. “While bid protests are a normal part of the government contracting process, we do not comment on such proceedings,” Alexandra C. “Preproduction design, tooling, and facility preparation activities are proceeding on schedule with the first NGDVs estimated to appear on carrier routes in 2023.” “While we do not comment on active litigation, the United States Postal Service is looking forward to the start of vehicle production for our Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV),” Kim Frum, senior public relations representative for the USPS said in an email to The Verge. The bid protest kicks off a high-profile court fight over the contract for the next-generation mail truck, and could have an impact on how and when those vehicles switch over to electric power - something President Biden has said he wants across the federal fleet. The complaint is currently sealed, though a judge could ultimately rule to make some parts of it public, as Workhorse also filed a redacted version of the complaint that could be made public. The Ohio-based company filed a bid protest in the US Court of Federal Claims on Wednesday. The USPS instead gave that contract to defense contractor Oshkosh. EV startup Workhorse has filed an official protest after losing the bid to make the United States Postal Service’s next-generation mail vehicle in February, a contract that could ultimately be worth some $6 billion.
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