Proterra impresses again with its entirely battery-powered bus: the Catalyst XR. The South Carolina-based company announced today that its 40-foot bus drove 258 miles on a single charge under test conditions at Michelin’s Laurens Proving Grounds (LPG).
It’s without a doubt an impressive feat to power a ~27,500 lbs vehicle for 285 miles on batteries alone…
Proterra managed to achieve this range with a massive 257 kWh battery pack. The battery pack had 8 separate modules and they plan on offering a 10 modules pack to make sure it can serve any regular transit route in the United States. The company estimates that a 10 modules 321 kWh battery pack could travel more than 300 miles on one charge based on the recent test.
During the max-range test, the bus kept an average speed of 30 mph and consumed 0.8 kWh per mile.
Proterra is one of the rare bus manufacturer to only focus on battery-powered technology and therefore they can design their buses from the ground-up to be completely electric instead of retrofitting an exiting gas-powered bus.
Ryan Popple, Proterra’s CEO, was Director of Finance at Tesla Motors before joining VC firm Kleiner Perkins which is a major investor in Proterra.
The company sold to date more than 110 buses which are currently in operation in transit programs all over the US.
Here’s a quick video of the range test:
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