Proterra, a newly public electric transit bus pioneer, aims to leverage its extensive experience creating high-powered batteries, charging systems and software for heavy-duty vehicles to expand business converting commercial fleet to electricity.
Shares of the Burlingame, California, company begin trading today on Nasdaq with the ticker “PRTA” following the completion of merger with blank check company ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. The listing via a special purpose acquisition company generated about $640 million for Proterra prior to the start of trading, CEO and Chairman Jack Allen tells Forbes. Unlike SPAC listings that raised huge amounts of money for electric truck startups that haven’t sold a single vehicle–including Lordstown Motors, Nikola and Arrival–Proterra has generated revenue for more than a decade from electric transit buses. But now it wants a bigger piece of the broader commercial vehicle market.
“It’s the perfect time for us to go public mainly because this commercial vehicle market is at an inflection point,” says Allen, who was truckmaker Navistar’s COO and executive vice president before arriving at Proterra. “We are in a position to drive the transition to battery electric commercial vehicles because we’re a company with a strong foundation and we have years of production experience. ... We have battery system technology that's been tested and proven. So we do believe that we are well positioned to capitalize on the market transformation that’s underway.”
Still, Proterra arrives on Nasdaq amid increased skepticism over the viability of would-be rivals in the electric truck space that raced to go public before achieving sustainable operations or delivering on ambitious early promises. This week Lordstown Motors’ CEO and CFO resigned after the company said it might not be able to continue operating if it failed to raise additional capital. In 2020, hydrogen- and battery-powered truck startup Nikola founder and former CEO Trevor Milton resigned after a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research accused him of lying about its technical capabilities and market readiness of its products. (Hindenburg leveled similar accusations against Lordstown and both it and Nikola are undergoing SEC reviews.)
Buses being built at Proterra's Greenville, South Carolina, plant.
ProterraProterra is at a different stage. Ahead of its listing, the 17-year-old company delivered more than 600 electric transit buses to 130 customers since 2010, the most of any company in North America. It’s also supplying battery packs, components and charging equipment to companies including coach bus builder Van Hool, industrial equipment manufacturer Komatsu, school bus maker Thomas and Volta, a startup maker of electric delivery trucks. Revenue was $197 million in 2020, up from $181.2 million a year earlier. It has also yet to post an annual profit.
The Silicon Valley-based company’s battery design and vehicle production efforts are led by veteran ex-Tesla engineers, including CTO Dustin Grace and COO Josh Ensign.
Proterra has found strong government support. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm served on its board of directors until taking up her current position this year and President Joe Biden made a virtual visit to Proterra’s Greenville, South Carolina, bus factory in April. The company also builds battery packs and buses at its West Coast plant in suburban Los Angeles.
CEO Allen aims to sell more battery packs to truckmakers and work with companies aiming to shift their products from diesel, gasoline and natural gas to electricity as that’s going to be a much larger market than its traditional business. “The overall market size for transit buses is 5,000 or 6,000 a year, but the overall market size for commercial vehicles dwarfs that.”
A worker at Proterra's Los Angeles-area plant assembles a battery pack.
Proterra"bus" - Google News
June 15, 2021 at 07:00PM
https://ift.tt/3pTnx7v
Proterra Looks To Electrify Heavy-Duty Vehicle Market As Battery Bus Pioneer Hits Nasdaq - Forbes
"bus" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2rp2JL3
https://ift.tt/3aT1Mvb
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Proterra Looks To Electrify Heavy-Duty Vehicle Market As Battery Bus Pioneer Hits Nasdaq - Forbes"
Post a Comment