US logistics giant UPS has announced it is to deploy 50 plug in battery electric delivery trucks that it says will be “comparable in acquisition cost to conventional-fueled trucks without any subsidies”.

UPS said this was an “industry first that is breaking a key barrier to large scale fleet adoption”.

According to UPS, it is working with manufacturer Workhorse “to design the vehicles from the ground up, with zero tailpipe emissions”.

Carlton Rose, President, Global Fleet Maintenance and Engineering for UPS, said: “Electric vehicle technology is rapidly improving with battery, charging and smart grid advances that allow us to specify our delivery vehicles to eliminate emissions, noise and dependence on diesel and gasoline.

“With our scale and real-world duty cycles, these new electric trucks will be a quantum leap forward for the purpose-built UPS delivery fleet. The all electric trucks will deliver by day and re-charge overnight. We are uniquely positioned to work with our partners, communities and customers to transform freight transportation.”

The new delivery vehicles will have a range of around 100 miles between charges that UPS has described as “ideal for delivery routes in and around cities”.

“This innovation is the result of Workhorse working closely with UPS over the last 4 years refining our electric vehicles with hard fought lessons from millions of road miles and thousands of packages delivered,” said Steve Burns, CEO of Workhorse Group. “Our goal is to make it easy for UPS and others to go electric by removing prior roadblocks to large scale acceptance such as cost.”

UPS will test the vehicles primarily on urban routes across the country, including Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles.