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Good things come in small packages and this holiday season UPS is going green in Northern California in order to get them to you.

The Petaluma, California branch of UPS has leased a fleet of 42 ZAP Xebra electric city cars and trucks to handle local small parcel deliveries.  The effort is meant to cut fuel costs during the busy holiday season and hopefully help to make the season a little more green with reduced automotive emissions.

In pure PR form, the ZAP CEO had this to say on his new UPS partner:

“This is the missing link for small package deliveries in congested areas,” said ZAP CEO Steve Schneider. “Packages go from the airplanes, to the tractor trailers, to the delivery vans, then to the drop-off nodes. From there the ZAP trucks make the final delivery to the consumer in a zero-emission vehicle that costs less to operate. It’s a perfect example of how green technology can help corporate America’s bottom line.”

UPS drivers of the ZAP trucks are meant to monitor their electricity usage in order to track how much the vehicles have saved the company in fuel costs.  The smaller size of the vehicles also makes it easier to dart in and around crowded city spots during the holiday crunch.

ZAP, which began working on automotive technologies in 1994, currently has 100,000 of its vehicles in 75 countries throughout the world.  They are currently developing a high performance SUV electronic car concept alongside Lotus Engineering called the ZAP-X.

Read [Zap World]