Colorado-based electric bus start-up Proterra Inc. has raised $30 million from investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture firm, and General Motors Ventures to speed up the development of high mileage and fast charging buses for cleaner mass transit.
G.M. Ventures, General Motor’s financing arm, said it invested $6 million in the financing round led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. The round also brought money from Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui, Vision Ridge Partners, and 88 Green Ventures.
Proterra said it will use the proceeds to complete federal validation testing of its buses, set up more pilot fleets, and boost volume and cut costs from its factory in Greenville, South Carolina that can produce 400 buses annually.
The company previously raised $20 million in funding from clean tech investor MK Energy and Infrastructure in June last year.
Founded in 2004, Proterra manufactures fast charging stations and drive components and energy storage systems for electric vehicles. Its flagship product is an electric bus called the EcoRide BE-35 which uses an electric propulsion system from U.Q.M. Technologies, also from Colorado.
The company, formerly called Mobile Energy Solutions LLC, said the bus’ fuel mileage is equal to getting 24 miles per gallon on diesel, a more than 600 percent improvement over a typical diesel bus averaging less than 4 mpg. EcoRide has room for 37 seated passengers and 31 standing passengers and recharges in about 10 minutes.
The buses have 72 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery packs supplied by Altairnano that are just 50 percent larger than the 53 kWh battery packs found in the Tesla Roadster and provide the buses with three hours of running time.
The batteries can be fully charged in under 10 minutes using Proterra’s inductive fast-charging stations called FastFill. The bus can recharge its batteries by parking in a docking station where a mechanical arm installed on EcoRide’s roof automatically connects with a charger above it without driver involvement.
Electric buses big in California
Proterra’s EcoRide buses and Fastfill stations have been in service at Foothill Transit in California since September last year. The buses were deployed in Foothill Transit’s Line 291, which travels between La Verne and Pomona, and recharge about every 30 miles at the Pomona Transit Center at a drive-in docking station.
The project was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Foothill said the Ecoliner is the first of its kind in the United States.
Foothill Transit purchased three electric buses, as well as two fast-charging stations, and signed on for an option to buy nine more of the model if all goes well in an initial trial period.
G.M. Ventures said EcoRide buses can easily replace 80 percent of diesel buses in typical transit and shuttle use without altering schedules or passenger service.
The company could expect more order in California after the state approved the Zero Emission Bus regulation in 2010. By 2012, 15 percent of the buses purchased by municipal agencies in California will have to be zero-emission vehicles.
«California is a high priority for Proterra since five of the top 10 most polluted cities in America are located there, according to the American Lung Association’s 2008 State of the Air Report,» said Jeff Granato, chief executive of Proterra.
G.M. Ventures said new buses and charging stations are also headed to San Antonio and Tallahassee, Florida later this year.
«Electrification of public transportation has tremendous benefits to governments, municipalities, and citizens by reducing the operating cost of transit, while also eliminating local air pollution and reducing carbon dioxide emissions per passenger mile in the industry,” said Al Gore, former United States Vice President and partner with Kleiner Perkins.
