Silicon Valley-based electric bus manufacturer Proterra Inc. opened its new manufacturing facility in the Los Angeles area, to meet demand for zero-emission vehicles from transit agencies in the West Coast.
Between the Los Angeles Mobility 2035 Plan and Measure M, the successful ballot measure to fund transportation infrastructure developments and improvements, the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan region represents a massive opportunity to revitalize clean public transportation. Proterra selected metro Los Angeles as an optimal vehicle production location to serve West Cost transit agencies, adding to its existing battery manufacturing facility in Silicon Valley and its East Coast vehicle production facility in Greenville, South Carolina.
The new Los Angeles County facility will benefit local economically distressed communities throughout the San Gabriel Valley, providing strong, long-term jobs in southern California’s emerging center of high-tech manufacturing. Proterra expects to have over 60 employees working in this facility by the end of 2017 and close to 100 employees by the end of 2018, building upon its already diverse workforce. Partially funded by a grant from the California Energy Commission, the $20 million factory is the second for Proterra, which already builds Catalyst model buses in Greenville, South Carolina. The new 100,000-square-foot facility is in the City of Industry, an LA suburb zoned for factories, that’s designed to produce 400 buses per year and employ 100 assembly workers.
Proterra’s facility is also in close proximity to its first customer, Foothill Transit, which serves 22 cities from downtown L.A. to the east, and is currently operating 17 of Proterra’s electric buses, with 30 more Proterra Catalyst E2 buses on the way. Foothill will be the first transit agency to receive the new Catalyst E2 buses that roll off the assembly line this summer.
To date, Proterra electric buses across the United States have completed over 3.5 million miles of revenue service, displacing more than 900,000 gallons of diesel, and eliminating over 13.7 million pounds of carbon emissions.
