Commercial vehicle electrification company Proterra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. The decision to file for bankruptcy was made on a voluntary basis within the jurisdiction of the District of Delaware, where the company is legally incorporated.
The company hopes to strengthen its financial position by recapitalizing or selling business units. Proterra intends to continue its business operations during this process.
The company intends to continue to operate in the ordinary course of business as it moves through this process and plans to file the customary motions with the Bankruptcy Court to use existing capital to fund operations, including paying employee salaries and benefits, and compensating vendors and suppliers on a go-forward basis in accordance with Chapter 11 rules, all while ensuring business continuity for customers.
“Proterra is at the forefront of the innovations that are driving commercial vehicle electrification. We know we’re building industry-leading products that our customers want and need,” said Gareth Joyce, Proterra CEO. “The foundation we have built has set the stage for decarbonization across the commercial vehicle industry as a whole, and we recognize the great potential in all of our product offerings to enable this important transformation. This is why we are taking action to separate each product line through the Chapter 11 reorganization process to maximize their independent potential.”
“While our best-in-class EV and battery technologies have set an industry standard, we have faced various market and macroeconomic headwinds, that have impacted our ability to efficiently scale all of our opportunities simultaneously. As commercial vehicles accelerate towards electrification, we look forward to sharpening our focus as a leading EV battery technology supplier for the benefit of our many stakeholders,” said Joyce.
Proterra went public in 2021 via SPAC merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. At the time, the company was valued at 1.6 billion dollars, including debt. At the last close of trading before the Chapter 11 bankruptcy announcement, Proterra still had a market value of 362 million dollars.
Proterra is a pioneer in zero-emission transportation with over a decade of production experience. The company introduced zero-emission, electric transit buses to the North American market in 2010, which have now cumulatively amassed more than 40 million real-world service miles and displaced over 180 million pounds of CO2 emissions. Today, the company’s best-in-class battery technology is powering more than 20 commercial vehicle applications spanning Class 3 cargo vans through to Class 8 semi-trucks, as well as off-highway equipment in the construction and mining segments, in the U.S., European, and Asia-Pacific markets. The company has further installed more than 100 megawatts of heavy-duty EV charging infrastructure to support commercial vehicle fleets across North America.
