Ukraine's national postal service Ukrposhta plans to buy 1,745 electric tricycles, with a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to help deliver the mail even as Russia steadily attacks the country's grid.
The firm has launched a tender for the e-trikes, and the closing date for submitting bids is Nov 18, the EBRD said in a notice last week.
In 2020, the EBRD agreed to provide a €63 million ($69 million) loan to Ukrposhta to finance the modernization of the company's logistics infrastructure and operating fleet.
Last year, however, the EBRD switched the allocation of €22.7 million of that loan to Ukrposhta to buy more than 5,000 e-bikes and around 350 commercial trucks to support the company's resilience amid the war with Russia.
The loan was originally meant to help modernize the company's operations, and the switch was made to "increase resilience" of the firm, allowing deliverers to continue to work even amid steady Russian attacks on the company's grid.
