CHICAGO — Alpha Baking Co. is adding to its alternative fuels truck fleet. The bread, bun and roll maker said it has agreed to acquire five Workhorse E-GEN electric trucks from Cincinnati-based AMP Holding Inc. The trucks will be deployed throughout Alpha Baking’s Chicagoland delivery routes, with the potential to add additional trucks to be deployed in additional delivery routes in the Alpha Baking system.

The Workhorse E-GEN truck offers three times the miles per gallon than typical gasoline-powered bread trucks in use today. The E-GEN power train employs a 2200 nm permanent magnet motor/generator for propulsion plus a 2.4-liter internal combustion engine that turns the electric motor in generator mode to recharge the battery pack when the state of charge reaches a pre-determined level and the vehicle is parked, the companies said.

“We’re excited to be working with AMP Trucks and look forward to deploying these vehicles in Chicago,” said Bob McGuire, vice-president and director of logistics, Alpha Baking. “Their unique capabilities give us a real opportunity to take advantage of their energy-efficient operation and at the same time they significantly reduce emissions.”

Alpha Baking became the first baking company to operate a fleet of autogas liquid propane vehicles in mid-2013 when it introduced 22 stepvans in the Chicago-metro area.

The Workhorse E-GEN trucks qualify for incentive funding through the Drive Clean Chicago program designed to make the cost of electric trucks comparable to their gas or diesel counterparts.

For AMP, it is the second agreement the company has signed to supply E-GEN trucks to a Chicago company, in a city that is incentivizing funding of electric trucks. The company earlier inked a purchase agreement to supply Standard Equipment Co. with three new Workhorse E-GEN medium-duty electric trucks. Standard Equipment Co. is an environmental equipment solutions provider for companies and municipalities and exclusive dealer of electric vehicles (EVs) to the City of Chicago.