Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI, has plans to sell 500 electric- powered trucks to the U.S. Postal Service.
Financial terms of the contract–which includes an option for the government agency to order as many as 6,000 battery-powered trucks–were not disclosed. Five companies had sought the contract, though the agency did not identify the others.
The Postal Service is required by the 1992 Energy Policy Act to buy vehicles powered by alternatives to gasoline engines. By 2002, it will have about 30,000 such vehicles, the agency said. In September 1998, it agreed to buy 10,000 ethanol-powered trucks from Ford for $206.4 million.
The electric-powered trucks, based on the Ford Ranger EV, are scheduled to be delivered beginning late next year.
Of the trucks, 480 will go to California and 20 to Washington, D.C. The agency said it required that they cost no more than its flexible-fuel vehicles not powered by electricity.
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