US Postal Service will buy six Canoo electric delivery vans

Canoo on Thursday announced that it will sell six electric delivery vans to the U.S. Postal Service.

Due for delivery to the Postal Service later this quarter, the vans will be righthand-drive versions of the Canoo LDV 190 model, according to a press release from the startup. The LDV 190 has a 79-kwh battery pack affording an estimated 200 miles of range. It also has 200 hp, 172 cubic feet of cargo space, and a 1,624-pound payload capacity, according to Canoo’s website.

Canoo structural battery pack

The Postal Service is undertaking a $40 billion effort to electrify its fleet. It plans to buy 21,000 EVs based on existing designs—including 9,250 Ford E-Transit vans—plus at least 45,000 electric versions of its custom-designed Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV).

The NGDV, intended as a replacement for the aptly named Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV) mail trucks that have been in service for decades, can be built with internal-combustion powertrains as well. The Postal Service has promised to buy more electric versions in response to widespread criticism of an initial plan to make only 10% of the vehicles electric, but the first EVs aren’t expected to arrive until 2028.

Canoo LDV 130 van in Kingbee livery

The Postal Service isn’t the first government entity Canoo has pitched its vehicles to. The startup delivered a prototype pickup truck to the U.S. Army for evaluation in 2022, and built three vans for NASA to transport astronauts to launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center.

In the private sector, Canoo recently announced that it had delivered the first vehicles in a 9,300-unit order to van rental firm Kingbee. In 2022, Walmart announced plans to buy thousands of Canoo electric vans. Production takes place in Oklahoma.