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.