Workhorse says Postal Service broke its own rules in new mail truck contest
EV startup Workhorse has accused the United States Postal Service of bias in choosing defense contractor Oshkosh to build the next-generation mail truck, and claims the agency committed “countless errors” during the selection process. Workhorse also alleges that the new mail truck that Oshkosh and the USPS debuted in February is entirely different from the one the defense contractor tested during the yearslong competition, and that it doesn’t have a working prototype, something the startup says is blatant evidence of unfair treatment.
These new allegations are at the heart of the complaint that Workhorse filed in the US Court of Federal Claims on June 16th, which was unsealed this week. (The court had allowed time for Workhorse, the government, and Oshkosh to agree on certain redactions before making the complaint public.) If Workhorse can prove to the court that the USPS didn’t follow its own rules in giving the award to Oshkosh, there’s a chance that the judge could overturn the award.
While the court fight has only just begun, the outcome could have an impact on how quickly the USPS moves to electrify its fleet, something that President Biden has said is a priority for his administration. Oshkosh and the USPS have claimed that the new truck can be powered by either an internal combustion engine or an electric drivetrain, though neither has actually showed how. Oshkosh is supposed to make anywhere between 50,000 and 165,000 of them over the next 10 years, though Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said earlier this year that only 10 percent of the new fleet will be electric to start, and that shifting more of it to electric power would cost billions of dollars.
