Description
Proterra is an American automotive and energy storage company based in Burlingame, California. The company designs and manufactures electric transit buses and electric charging systems. Proterra's Catalyst series includes transit buses ranging from 35 feet (11 m) to 40 feet (12 m) in length and various battery configurations. Buses are charged through an overhead charging station that is placed at maintenance facilities as well as route terminals. Founded in 2004, it became a public company in June 2021 through a business transaction with a Nasdaq-listed special-purpose acquisition company.
History
Proterra, Inc., was founded in Golden, Colorado, by Dale Hill in 2004. Hill had previously founded TransTeq, a Denver, Colorado, bus manufacturing company that built CNG hybrid buses throughout the 1990s, as well as Alumatech, a manufacturing company that made aluminum dump trailers.
Following the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)'s push for alternative fuels and forms of mobility through such programs as the Clean Fuels Grant Program Bus and Bus Facilities, and the TIGER and TIGGER programs, Hill wanted go beyond the success of his CNG buses that launched the world's first fleet of alternative fuel buses at the 16th Street Mall in Denver, Colorado. He wanted to create a company that would take the lead in creating zero-emission, U.S.-based transit buses.
This was particularly important since many of the programs, including the Clean Fuels Grant Program and the TIGGER program, either exclude CNG buses and facilities, explicitly require capital investments that assist in reducing the energy consumption of a transit agency, and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions of a transit agency.
In February 2010, Proterra announced that it would move its manufacturing plant from Golden, Colorado to Greenville, South Carolina due to its close proximity to Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). In October 2011, the company announced it would consolidate all operations in Greenville, moving management and research teams from Colorado.
Ryan Popple, formerly of Tesla Motors, was appointed CEO in 2014.
In 2015, Proterra was awarded a $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission to fund the design, development and construction of the company's battery-electric transit bus manufacturing line in the City of Industry, California.
Proterra moved its headquarters from Greenville, South Carolina, to Burlingame, California, in October 2015.
As of January 2017, the company has sold more than 375 buses to municipal, corporate and university transit agencies in 20 states.
In September 2018, Daimler, the former parent company of Orion Bus Industries, invested $155 million in Proterra.
In January 2021 the company announced that it will be publicly listed on the NASDAQ after an upcoming reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company, ArcLight Clean Transition Corp (NASDAQ:ACTC). The combined company will have an estimated value of $1.6 billion USD. The company entered European truck markets in February 2021.
