SPARTANBURG, SC—Defense contractor Oshkosh has won the $6 billion contract to build the U.S. Postal Service's upcoming Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) here. Oshkosh will deliver the new delivery vans to the USPS, although Ford will be the one actually building the engines, transmissions, and other components for the NGDV.

Ford has announced it will provide both traditional gasoline-powered and battery-electric powertrains for the vehicles. For now, the bulk of the initial orders will run on fossil fuels. However, Reuters reports that Ford says it can supply powertrain components for either gas or electric models.

The NGDV represents the first major fleet change for the USPS in about three decades. The current mail delivery vehicles, known as Grumman Long Life Vehicles, were built between 1987 and 1994 and were only meant to be on the road for a maximum of 24 years. The new contract says the USPS will purchase somewhere between 50,000 and 165,000 NGDVs over 10 years.

Oshkosh says it will hire more than 1,000 people for the Spartanburg facility, not counting related supply-chain jobs that the new plant will require. The facility will also repurpose what Oshkosh is calling an "expansive warehouse" so NGDV production can start in the summer of 2023.