Oshkosh Admitted Weakness on EVs Before Shock Postal Deal
- Company says its trucks can be battery or gasoline powered
- Critics in Congress vowing to oppose the award to contractor
Supporters of the Postal Service move say it’s urgent to replace older mail vehicles with mounting repair costs.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergOshkosh Corp. executives cautioned investors that they lacked expertise in building electric vehicles several months before the company won a lucrative U.S. Postal Service contract to build next-generation mail-delivery vans with batteries or internal-combustion engines.
Oshkosh in a November securities filing said it “may not have the expertise or resources” to compete as vehicle manufacturers turn increasingly to EVs. But in a January investors’ call and again after winning the 10-year, $6 billion postal contract last month, the company said its vehicle could use either type of engine and could be retrofitted to batteries “as that technology evolves.”