USPS May Get Electric Vehicles Sooner Rather Than Later

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A flurry of lobbying activity may yet put a fleet of electric delivery vans into service at the U.S. Postal Service, reports AutoBlog Green.

The House of Representatives introduced the e-Drive bill in December, which would allow for 20,000 electric delivery vans and a network of 24,000 charging stations, but that bill (PDF) has gone nowhere.

Now, electric vehicle backers are on Capitol Hill, taking some time away from the Washington Auto Show to meet with Congress about the issue, according to the article.

USPS already has plans to test an electric version of its standard delivery van, reports Wired.

AC Propulsion and AutoPort are involved in the test, which has a goal to produce a mail truck with a 300-mile range and 60 mile per hour top speed.

USPS has more than 140,000 delivery vehicles in service.

It its sustainability report, the U.S. Postal Service showed a decrease in total energy use of 9 percent from 2005 to 2008. In 2008 the agency used 123 million gigajoules, compared to 131 million GJ in 2007, 134 million GJ in 2006 and 136 million GJ in 2005.

Overall vehicle energy use rose by 5 percent from 2005 to 2008, while the agency’s use of alternative fuel rose by 61 percent.