UQM Building 100 UPS Electric Vehicles

UQM Technologies said it will build motors for a fleet of 100 electric delivery trucks that it will deploy in California later this year.

UQM opened a manufacturing plant in Longmont, Colo., the company said, giving it the capacity for large-scale production of electric motors and components.

The company will supply the motors to manufacturer Electric Vehicles International.

In August, UPS said it was buying 100 hybrid vehicles from EVI to replace older-generation diesel trucks. The EVI electric vehicles will have a 90-mile range and will displace an estimated 126,000 gallons of fuel a year that would have been burned in diesel trucks.

“UPS’ research and development of alternative technologies has determined it is time to explore electric-drive systems within the short-range segment of our delivery fleet,” Mike Britt, UPS’ director of vehicle engineering, said in a statement.

UPS currently has 28 all-electric vehicles in its fleet operating in New York City and in Europe.