May 21, 2008
Daimler Closes Big ‘Green’ Vehicle Deal With UPS
SAN FRANCISCO – Daimler AG said United Parcel Service Inc. ordered 200 hybrid electric
vehicles and 300 compressed natural gas vehicles in what the German automaker
called the biggest sale of “green” trucks ever recorded, according to www.marketwatch.com.
Stuttgart-based Daimler would not disclose the financial terms of the order but
said the manufacturer’s suggested retail price is more than $100,000 each. That
would bring the MSRP for the total deal to more than $50,000,000, the report
said.
The eco-friendly vehicles, built by Daimler Truck North
America’s Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp. (FCCC) division, will join the 25
hybrid delivery trucks already in operation at UPS next year.
FCCC has more than 160 hybrids in service since 2004, when
it became the first manufacturer to introduce the vehicles into fleet
operations. The hybrid-electric power train achieves a 40 percent improvement
in fuel economy and a 90 percent reduction in emissions compared to the
non-hybrid version. The 200 new hybrids are expected to save 176,000 gallons of
fuel a year and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1,786 annually.
The vehicles are part of Daimler’s “Shaping Future
Transportation” initiative that was launched late last year with a goal of
building 1,500 hybrid trucks in North America over the next three years, along with introducing a hybrid version of the
Thomas Built school bus.