Electric bus manufacturer Proterra Inc. announced it won the majority of the vehicles awarded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Low or No Emission Vehicle Deployment Grant.
The Low-No grant winners will use their funds to purchase 33 Catalyst buses, bringing Proterra’s total number of orders to 155 vehicles from 16 transit agencies across the United States. With new and existing Proterra customers building their zero-emission vehicle fleets, this announcement underscores the rising demand for Proterra electric buses and highlights that the electric bus market is taking more mainstream market share.
As one of the largest transit agencies in the United States, serving 3.9 million people in five counties in and around Philadelphia, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) will receive $2,585,075 from FTA and use the funds to purchase 25 Proterra Catalyst buses and five overhead chargers.
SEPTA will be procuring more zero-emission vehicles with less Low-No funding than any other grant recipient, which is a testament to SEPTA’s electric vehicle vision and state of the EV bus market. Proterra zero-emission buses will be deployed on Routes 29 and 79 in South Philadelphia.
On the heels of completing one of the most rigorous performance tests, King County Metro Transit, serving the greater area of Seattle Washington, will now be able to fully electrify two routes using new funds from FTA’s Low-No Program for eight new Proterra Catalyst vehicles.
Recently, the Catalyst simulated one year of operation and averaged 325 miles of driving each day with a constant 97 passenger equivalent load during King County’s accelerated durability and reliability test. Over the testing period, the Proterra Catalyst averaged 15 MPGe, which is 213 percent more efficient than current King County Metro 40′ diesel buses and is expected to improve to 18 MPGe with normal passenger loads.
Proterra’s first customer and the first agency in the U.S. to operate EV buses in revenue service, Foothill Transit, also received Low-No grant funding that will go towards electric charging facilities and support the transit agency’s ongoing electric bus program. Foothill Transit, which serves more than 14 million customers in Los Angeles County, will be receiving 15 more EVs from Proterra this year and next, including the first commercial deliveries of Proterra’s long-range XR technology vehicles, which will be fully compatible with their existing Fast Charge FC vehicles and chargers, bringing Foothill’s all-electric fleet to nearly 10 percent of the transit agency’s total.
