US-based electric bus manufacturer Proterra upgraded its 40-foot Catalyst E2, now called ‘Catalyst E2 max‘, with a massive 660 kWh battery pack and brought it to the track at the Navistar Proving Grounds in New Carlisle, Indiana, to test it.

Unsurprisingly with that insane amount of battery capacity in the vehicle, they beat the record for the most distance traveled on a single charge by an electric vehicle.  expand full story

Electric bus maker Proterra is fresh off an important $140 million investment round to expand production and yet, it just announced another (Series 6) $55 million investment round.

Investors include Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management and BMW’s venture capital arm, BMW i Ventures. expand full story

There are so many companies working on autonomous driving these days that it’s hard to keep track and now we can add another one to the list.

Proterra, a US-based manufacturer of battery-powered buses, wants to add autonomous driving capability to its fleet of electric buses. They announced this week a deal to join the University of Nevada, Reno’s Living Lab Coalition to work on autonomy for public transit. expand full story

Transit vehicles today are mostly powered by gasoline, diesel, and CNG, while batteries only represent about 1% of the market. It is currently a small part of the industry, but it’s also the fastest growing fuel source in the sector and it’s starting to become highly competitive.

Electric bus maker Proterra is ramping up production and currently claims to be cheaper than diesel and CNG. It leads CEO Ryan Popple to make a bold prediction that battery-powered buses will dominate the transit bus market within 10 years. expand full story

If you were wondering how electric bus manufacturer Proterra managed to secure a large $140 million round of financing last week, it might be easier to understand now that we know they had a massive order in the pipeline.

King County’s Metro Transit, which includes Seattle’s metro area, announced a zero-emission transition of its fleet of buses and confirmed that it will add 120 new all-electric buses over the next 3 years. Proterra is getting the bulk of the order. expand full story

Now that battery-powered buses are becoming more cost-effective and able to handle almost any urban routes, manufacturers are looking to expand their production to satisfy the demand from transit agencies turning to electric when updating their fleet.

Proterra, a manufacturer of large all-electric buses in the US, has been talking a lot about production expansion lately after sales being up 220% since last year. The company hired Tesla’s former Vice President of Manufacturing to lead the expansion at their facility in Greenville, South Carolina, and their new factory in Los Angeles County.

Last week, the company confirmed having secured an impressive $140 million investment to finance this important expansion of their production capacity. expand full story

A deal between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) was announced today to award funding for the purchase of “15 Proterra Catalyst buses, 11 Proterra depot-chargers, and 4 Proterra fast-chargers”. expand full story

Josh Ensign, until recently Tesla’s Vice President of Manufacturing, left the automaker in somewhat of a controversy earlier this year when it was reported that himself and Vice President of Production Greg Reichow, two of the top manufacturing executives at Tesla, were let go following what CEO Elon Musk later referred to as the “production hell” of the first half of 2016 due to a difficult Model X ramp up.

Tesla denied that their departures had anything do with the Model X production issues. The company soon after hired Peter Hochholdinger, Audi’s Senior Director of Production, to lead vehicle manufacturing.

Now we learn that Ensign is staying in the electric vehicle manufacturing business. It was announced today that he is joining all-electric bus maker Proterra as Chief Operating Officer. expand full story

Proterra unveils today its new Catalyst E2 and it claims it will cover the “daily mileage needs of nearly every U.S. mass transit route on a single charge” – leaving no excuse to fleet managers for not going with all-electric buses when replacing their fleet. expand full story

Over two years ago, Tesla open-sourced all its patents for electric vehicles – a surprising announcement in our IP-centric business climate. CEO Elon Musk explained the move as being in line with Tesla’s mission to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport:

“If we’re all in a ship together and the ship has some holes in it, and we’re sort of bailing water out of it, and we have a great design for a bucket, then even if we’re bailing out way better than everyone else, we should probably still share the bucket design.”

We might get access to yet another bucket design thanks to Proterra, a leading manufacturer of all-electric buses. The bus maker announced today that it will be opening its proprietary “on-route fast-charging technology” on a royalty-free basis. expand full story