By Roy L Hales

Proterra has set a new eBus record for miles traveled in a day. One of the manufacturer’s buses drove more than 700 miles in 24 hours during a road test near the company’s headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina.

New eBus Record

A route simulating both commuter and central business district routes was chosen for the test.

The bus ran an average speed of 29 miles per hour with the HVAC system running. It was charged periodically throughout the day, using Proterra’s proprietary fast-charging process, which can charge from 0% to 95% with >92% energy charge efficiency in as little as 6 minutes.. This technology allows a bus to fully charge in less time than it takes to charge a cell phone.

Engineers gave the vehicle an average fuel economy of nearly 27 miles per gallon – nearly six times that of a diesel bus and seven times that of CNG. This is an equivalency used to offer some means of comparison for efficiency.

100% Battery Electric

Proterra buses are 100% battery-electric and have zero emissions.

The bus used for this test will go into revenue service in the Southeastern United States within the next few months.

“This record offers definitive proof that all-electric Proterra buses combine all the durability and functionality of conventional buses, while significantly reducing total cost of ownership, fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions,” said Garrett Mikita, CEO, Proterra Inc. “We are even more proud of the fact that we demonstrated this performance using a regular production bus with the same features and performance we build into all our buses.”

Proterra was founded by Dale Hill in 2004.

The EcoRide™ BE35 is the only vehicle currently in service that meets California’s requirements on transit buses (15% of vehicle fleets qualify as zero-emission buses).

Proterra also meets all of the goals the Federal Transit Administration has set forth for its preferred electric drive vehicle of the year 2030.

Proterra’s Buses

Here is a list of buses ordered, or in action, taken from Proterra’s website:

All-electric buses:

Pomona, CA – Foothill Transit (3 buses + 12 in production)
San Antonio, TX – VIA Metropolitan Transit (3 buses)
Seneca, SC – City of Seneca (4 buses)
Stockton, CA – San Joaquin RTD (2 buses)
Tallahassee, FL – StarMetro (5 buses)
Reno, NV – RTC of Washoe County 4 buses)
Worcester, MA – Worcester Regional Transit Authority (6 buses)
Nashville, TN – Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (7 in production)

Fuel-cell buses:

Austin, TX – Capital Metro Transit
Burbank, CA – Burbank Bus
Fort Lewis, WA – Pierce Transit

(The Future of Transit: Offering six times the fuel economy of diesel, Proterra’s all-electric bus recently set a record for the most miles driven in a day by an EV transit bus. Photo Credit: Proterra/Business Wire)