WASHINGTON, D.C. (WKBN) — The U.S. Postal Service announced it was awarding a 10-year contract to a Wisconsin-based business to manufacture postal delivery vehicles, passing on hopes that Lordstown Motors would be part of the plan.

Cincinnati-based Workhorse owns a 10% share of Lordstown Motors. If they got the USPS contract, there were hopes that the vehicles would be built at the Lordstown facility.

Tuesday, USPS announced its contract is going to Oshkosh Defense, however.

The investment is part of a soon-to-be-released plan the Postal Service has developed to “transform its financial performance and customer service over the next 10 years.”

Lordstown Motors issued a statement Tuesday through their spokesperson Ryan Hallett who said that their business plan never relied on Workhorse receiving the USPS contract.

“If they were awarded it, we would’ve loved to have been a part of the production team, but our focus has always been and will always be to build the most cost-effective, safest, zero emission work vehicles ever made – starting with the over 100,000 Endurances that have been preordered,” Hallett said.

Under the contract’s initial $482 million investment, Oshkosh Defense will finalize the production design of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) — a purpose-built, right-hand-drive vehicle for mail and package delivery — and will assemble 50,000 to 165,000 of them over 10 years.

The vehicles will be equipped with either fuel-efficient internal combustion engines or battery-electric powertrains and can be retrofitted to keep pace with advances in electric vehicle technologies. The initial investment includes plant tooling and build-out for the U.S. manufacturing facility where final vehicle assembly will occur. 

The contract is the first part of a multi-billion-dollar 10-year effort to replace the Postal Service’s delivery vehicle fleet.

“Our fleet modernization also reflects the Postal Service’s commitment to a more environmentally sustainable mix of vehicles,” said USPS Chief Executive Officer Louis DeJoy. “Because we operate one of the largest civilian government fleets in the world, we are committed to pursuing near-term and long-term opportunities to reduce our impact on the environment.”