Electric Bus Maker Gets Funding Boost from GM, Kleiner Perkins

A young electric bus maker got a boost Monday from GM, Kleiner Perkins and other funders, rescuing it from potential collapse, and speeding up the deployment of electric buses in at least three cities.

Proterra announced $30 million in funding after a rough spot with a key investor was snagged in a ponzi scheme (Proterra was uninvolved). Jeff Granato, president of Proterratells Transportation Nation, "this gets us caught up with all our suppliers" Adding, "if Proterra didn't make it past this time, it would have been a big setback to the industry."

While there is active competition in the electric car market, there aren't any other electric bus manufacturers delivering vehicles to municipal transit agencies right now, and Proterra is barely getting started themselves. That's not for lack of need or opportunity. Buses are just about the worst category of polluter per passenger mile. And regulations are rolling out that will incentivize adoption pretty soon. California is requiring 15 percent of buses purchased by municipal agencies  to be zero-emissions vehicles starting by 2012. Proterra’s EcoRide BE-35 bus is currently the only one that meets the regulatory requirements.

Right now, the only city where Proterra's all electric buses are on the road is Pomona California where they make an 8 mile loop on Route 291. The buses can recharge in less than ten minutes at a layover spot where the buses have to wait for 15 minutes to stay on schedule anyway. The city's transit agency paid $5.6 million for three buses and two chargers.

Granato says, "the primary customer for us will be public transit agencies." He's signed preliminary deals with San Antonio and Tallahassee to get pilot routes in place by the end of the year like the one on Pomona.

The nature of public transit may actually help make electric vehicles more affordable. "You can very specifically put the capacity of energy on board that the route demands," Granato says, explaining that agencies can avoid paying for extra battery power on routes that have longer or more frequent layovers suitable for charging. That means the price can come down once there is enough data to make more precise calculations on energy use. "That's the wonderful thing about public transit. The routes are very predictable. You've got the ability to ... spec the system to the exact needs of the route and the schedule," he says.

The buses could run for up to four hours without a charge, and the charge could be timed to overlap with required break times for drivers.