UPS deal helping fuel growth for Loveland-based Lightning Hybrids

LOVELAND — Lightning Hybrids officials hope their new deal to retrofit 50 UPS Inc. trucks with hybrid systems is just the “tip of the iceberg” with the world’s largest package-delivery company.

Loveland-based Lightning — which makes hydraulic hybrid systems for medium- and heavy-duty fleet vehicles, as well as larger trash trucks and transit buses — announced the deal with UPS Thursday. Lightning will install its systems on 50 Freightliner MT-55 trucks with gasoline engines in the Chicago area. The first trucks already went into service this week, and all are slated to be on the road by the end of October,…