Photo: Workhorse Group
Workhorse Group, a manufacturer of electric vehicles and potential supplier to the United States Postal Service for an all-electric vehicle fleet, have dropped their suit against eventual contract winner Oshkosh Defense.
Workhorse Group voluntarily dismissed a legal challenge against their rivals which sought to overturn a USPS move to award a multibillion-dollar deal to Oshkosh Defense for delivery of the next generation of Postal Service vehicles.
The 10-year contract deal which was announced at the start of this year is projected to be worth upwards of $6 billion and calls for the delivery of anywhere from 50,000 to 165,000 vehicles.
The Workhorse bid proposed that the company would build an all-electric vehicle fleet while the winning Oshkosh bid called for meeting the requirement with a mix of internal combustion-powered and electric vehicles.
The legal challenge that Workhorse filed in June was ready to begin to face arguments before a judge today in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
According to Reuters, neither Workhorse nor Oskhosh responded to their requests for comment as of yesterday night. The USPS declined immediate comment.
Lawyers for the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the Workhorse Group challenge saying the company "admitted failure to exhaust mandatory administrative remedies." Workhorse responded by claiming that the USPS's administrative remedies violated the U.S. Constitution, but the Justice Department countered that argument by writing that "Workhorse has forfeited its newfound...challenge by failing to raise it before the Postal Service."
Controversial Postmaster General appointee, Louis DeJoy, caused consternation among political factions by committing to at least 10% of the fleet's being electric vehicles and then awarding the contract to Oshkosh.
At this moment, Congress is considering providing USPS additional billions to speed the full adoption of EVs, and earlier in September a U.S. House of Representatives panel approved $2.4 billion for USPS to buy new EV postal trucks. Those monies are also expected to be spent to build charging infrastructure.
The 10-year contract deal which was announced at the start of this year is projected to be worth upwards of $6 billion and calls for the delivery of anywhere from 50,000 to 165,000 vehicles.
The Workhorse bid proposed that the company would build an all-electric vehicle fleet while the winning Oshkosh bid called for meeting the requirement with a mix of internal combustion-powered and electric vehicles.
The legal challenge that Workhorse filed in June was ready to begin to face arguments before a judge today in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
According to Reuters, neither Workhorse nor Oskhosh responded to their requests for comment as of yesterday night. The USPS declined immediate comment.
Lawyers for the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the Workhorse Group challenge saying the company "admitted failure to exhaust mandatory administrative remedies." Workhorse responded by claiming that the USPS's administrative remedies violated the U.S. Constitution, but the Justice Department countered that argument by writing that "Workhorse has forfeited its newfound...challenge by failing to raise it before the Postal Service."
Controversial Postmaster General appointee, Louis DeJoy, caused consternation among political factions by committing to at least 10% of the fleet's being electric vehicles and then awarding the contract to Oshkosh.
At this moment, Congress is considering providing USPS additional billions to speed the full adoption of EVs, and earlier in September a U.S. House of Representatives panel approved $2.4 billion for USPS to buy new EV postal trucks. Those monies are also expected to be spent to build charging infrastructure.
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