USPS's new electric vans spent up to 14 months parked in holding lots
Summary
In March 2022 the Postal Service's own purchasing model, run at a lowball $2.71-a-gallon gas price, recommended an order that was 80 percent gas-powered -- and GAO found that adding just $1 to that price would have flipped the model to nearly 90 percent electric. Eight months later, prodded by a $3 billion federal appropriation, USPS reversed course and ordered thousands of electric E-Transits instead. By June 2025 it had delivered 7,465 of the 9,250 it promised -- but had nowhere to plug in 6,036 of them, some parked at holding lots for as long as 14 months, while a second round of postponed savings, worth $78 million, piled onto the $77 million already lost to the prior year's production shortfall.
A gas price too convenient to check
's contract with Oshkosh Defense let it order 50,000 to 165,000 next-generation delivery vehicles with a choice of gas or electric powertrains. For its March 2022 order -- 50,000 vehicles, 39,981 gas and 10,019 electric, worth $2.98 billion⧉ -- ran its cost model on an assumed gas price of $2.71 a gallon. GAO found⧉ that never disclosed the methodology behind that number, and that it excluded a price run-up that had already happened: the national average had climbed from $3.19 in October 2021 to $4.24 by March 2022, per EIA data cited in the same report. then tested what a more current price would have done to the model's own output -- and found that raising the assumed gas price by just $1 flipped the recommendation from about 10 percent electric to almost 90 percent.
View data as table
| Gas priced $0.50 below GAO's test midpoint | 10% | USPS's chosen $2.71 sat near this end of the range |
|---|---|---|
| Gas priced at GAO's test midpoint | 57% | |
| Gas priced $0.50 above the midpoint | 86% | near where gas actually reached by March 2022 |
The pivot nobody built docks for
Money changed the calculus that transparency hadn't. In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act appropriated $3 billion⧉ to for zero-emission vehicles and charging infrastructure. By December 2022, announced it would flip its order to a minimum of 75 percent electric out of 60,000 next-generation vehicles -- the opposite mix from what it had told Congress the numbers supported nine months earlier. That reversal sat inside a much larger plan: 106,480 new delivery vehicles between fiscal 2023 and 2028⧉, a nearly $10 billion investment including the $3 billion in federal funds. The purpose-built electric van, the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, missed its own numbers early: 's inspector general reported that the original plan called for more than 3,050 NGDVs delivered by June 2024; the plan current as of that October 2024 audit called for 28. The estimated the resulting delays would postpone more than $77 million in savings between fiscal 2024 and 2025.
Delivered faster than the plugs could keep up
The vehicle that did ship on schedule created a different problem. 's plan called for 9,250 E-Transits⧉ -- a commercial, left-hand-drive electric van needing no custom tooling. By June 2025, had acquired 7,465 of them, 81 percent of the plan and only 1,785 behind its own April 2024 schedule -- the opposite failure mode from the NGDV. But delivery units didn't have the charging infrastructure or compatible routes to put them to work. 's fix was to park them: as of June 30, 2025, 6,036 E-Transits sat at eight holding lots nationwide⧉, some as long as 14 months. The inspector general estimated this postponed more than $78 million in savings between fiscal 2025 and 2026 -- on top of the $77 million already lost to the prior year's production shortfall.
View data as table
| Planned by the April 2024 schedule | 9,250 | |
|---|---|---|
| Actually acquired by June 2025 | 7,465 | 81% of plan |
| Sitting unused in holding lots | 6,036 | as long as 14 months |
View data as table
| Atlanta (GA) CTHO | 3,114 | 14 months |
|---|---|---|
| Santa Clarita (CA) VMF | 603 | 14 months |
| New Jersey NDC | 442 | 13 months |
| Norfolk (VA) VMF | 614 | 11 months |
| Carol Stream (IL) VMF | 325 | 11 months |
| Seattle (WA) VMF | 497 | 7 months |
| Lehigh Valley (PA) VMF | 343 | 4 months |
| Harrisburg (PA) VMF | 98 | 3 months |
| Total | 6,036 | across 8 holding lots |
Paying twice for the parking
Storing a van is not free. hired garage assistants at three holding lots; it also contracted third-party security at one holding lot. At one lot, staff paid a local contractor to charge more than 180 E-Transits at a public location instead of using the free chargers already installed at Postal Service facilities, citing manpower shortages and charging restrictions at the vehicle maintenance facility. The inspector general put a number on that decision: $37,058 in questioned costs⧉ between February and April 2025 alone. The same audit found E-Transit batteries charged to 90 and 100 percent during extended storage -- above both 's own 70 percent guideline and the supplier's roughly 50 percent recommendation for vehicles held longer than 30 days -- a practice that risks voiding the vehicles' limited warranty before they ever deliver a package.
View data as table
| FY2024-2025 (NGDV/BEV production delays) | 77 |
|---|---|
| FY2025-2026 (E-Transit holding-lot delays) | 78 |
The takeaway
- 's own model said the gas price was the swing factor, then picked the number. A $1 change in the assumed price of gas -- well within the range gas had already moved through -- would have flipped the March 2022 order from mostly gas to nearly 90 percent electric.
- The correction came from Congress's money, not a corrected model. A $3 billion Inflation Reduction Act appropriation, not a fixed cost estimate, is what itself cited for accelerating electric purchases by nearly 560 percent.
- Buying the right vehicle isn't the same as being able to use it. delivered E-Transits ahead of the charging infrastructure needed to plug them in, and two consecutive inspector general audits have now tallied a combined $155 million in savings lost to acquisition and deployment delays.
agreed with five of the inspector general's six E-Transit recommendations in the September 2025 report and disagreed with one. It disputed the 's characterization of "mixed results," said it had moved more than 1,000 E-Transits into daily operation after commissioning additional charging infrastructure, and disagreed that battery charging or local contracting practices were inconsistent. All figures are from the two audit reports and the April 2023 report cited throughout; the $155 million combined-savings figure sums two separate estimates covering different (if adjacent) delay periods, not a single audited total.
Sources(3) ▾
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, U.S. Postal Service: Action Needed to Improve Credibility of Cost Assumptions for Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (2023-04-20) — the $2.71 gas-price assumption, the undisclosed $3.19-to-$4.24 price jump it excluded, the sensitivity analysis showing a $1 gas-price swing flips the model's recommendation between about 10% and 90% electric, and the March 2022 initial order mix and Inflation Reduction Act appropriation gao.gov · original document
- United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Fleet Modernization: Delivery Vehicle Acquisition Status (Report Number 24-051-R25) (2024-10-03) — the 106,480-vehicle, nearly-$10-billion fleet modernization plan; the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle shortfall (28 delivered vs. a plan of over 3,050); and the $77 million in postponed FY2024-2025 savings uspsoig.gov · original document
- United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Fleet Modernization: E-Transit Vehicle Acquisition Update (Report Number 25-063-R25) (2025-09-16) — the E-Transit acquisition schedule (Table 1) and eight-holding-lot storage table (Table 2), the $78 million in postponed FY2025-2026 savings, the 560% BEV order increase, the $37,058 in questioned local-charging costs, and the battery-storage/warranty-risk finding uspsoig.gov · original document
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The Postal Service's own purchasing model said the math was close: raise the price of gas by a dollar and the model would recommend electric vehicles for nearly nine of every ten routes instead of one in ten. controlled that variable. It picked $2.71 a gallon -- a price gas hadn't held for months -- and used it to justify an order that was 80 percent gas trucks in March 2022. Then, pushed by a $3 billion federal appropriation, reversed field and ordered thousands of electric vans anyway. By June 2025 it had built more than it could plug in: 6,036 electric delivery vans sitting in parking lots, one of them for 14 months, while two consecutive inspector general audits tallied a combined $155 million in savings the delays have cost.