Proterra To Provide Two Transit Buses To San Joaquin Regional Transit District

Proterra, provider of zero-emission commercial transit vehicles, in partnership with the San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD), was recently awarded a California Energy Commission grant in the amount of $2.56 million towards an electric bus demonstration project valued at over $4 million. This demonstration project will introduce the San Joaquin RTD’s first fully electric buses into service. The vehicles are promised to reduce energy consumption, waste, and pollution in California’s Central Valley, an area of strategic importance to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The grant award includes two new EcoRide BE35 battery-electric buses for RTD’s operating fleet. The company will also provide the automated fast-charging station for RTD’s Downtown Transit Center. The buses and charge station will be delivered to SJRTD in the spring of 2013.

The 35-foot long buses are made of lightweight composite materials and are powered with state of the art battery technology. As a result, the company claims the buses have zero emissions, run virtually silent, and are purportedly six hundred percent more fuel efficient than diesel buses.

This grant comes on the heels of growing interest in the company in California and other areas of the country involved with environmentally friendly transportation initiatives. In 2010, Proterra broke through California’s fleet regulatory requirements with a Federal Transit Authority demonstration project with Foothill Transit, in Pomona, CA. Foothill Transit began using three of the company’s EcoRide buses (dubbed the ecoliner by Foothill Transit) in September 2010 and is currently operating select services with their Proterra fleet. With reduced fuel and maintenance costs, the company’s buses may also be an attractive option for areas looking to reduce their total cost of ownership and operating expenses.

Other cities anticipated to roll-out the company's buses in the next six months include San Antonio, TX and Tallahassee, FL.

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