Proterra is was the supposed go-to electric bus manufacturer that the Left salivated over and threw tons of cash at. Even to the point of once being touted by Joe Biden as “Owning the future,” has just filed for bankruptcy.
But as to why… oh, brother. Hold on to your hat for this cluster fornication.
Digging into as to why Proterra went belly-up, the is simply a perfect example of economic fascism.
While the American Left likes to describe anyone who just might disagree with them as fascists, they are the ones who actually want our economy to be based on the system that Germany, Japan, and Italy used during the WW II years.
Long story short, economic fascism proclaims that private enterprise is in-fact legal and permissible, but it is government calling all the shots.
Who, what, when, where, and how is totally the call of an all-powerful central government. Golly, sounds a lot like America, huh?
Anyhow, in regard to Proterra, they crapped-out because they relied on tax dollars to stay afloat. Period.
While I would assume that there are still some city and/or town transit services that are owned by private business concerns, we still have to be honest with ourselves. The heavy hitters (NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.) are under the thumb of government, be it on the city, county, or state level.
As reported by Kirsten Korosec of the everything nerdy TechCrunch.com (emphasis mine);
“Proterra, a company that develops battery systems for buses and other heavy duty EVs, filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, making it the latest in a string of failures in the EV sector.”
“The bankruptcy filing came as a surprise for many. After all, Proterra was a company that was well-established — certainly no pre-revenue upstart — and a darling in the EV sector. (As of August 2023, the company had delivered more than 1,000 electric transit buses, including 199 new transit buses and 14 pre-owned buses in 2022.)”
“Things were going well enough that it went public in 2021 via a merger with special purpose acquisition company, in a deal was valued at $1.6 billion.”
“So, how did Proterra wind up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection?”
“A tightening capital market didn’t help. Proterra burned through capital as it tried to scale its three businesses simultaneously.”
“And then there are the special problems associated with companies that try to make a profit through sales to cities, and specifically transit agencies.”
“Deals with transit agencies, which rely on federal and state funding, are slow to finalize and budgets are tight, which can mean reducing the price of a product to win a bid. That doesn’t help margins.”
“On top of that pressure, Proterra doesn’t recognize revenue until it delivers those buses. Inflation rose in the meantime, further cutting into its margins. Contracts are typically signed 12 to 18 months prior to bus manufacturing, Proterra said in a day one declaration filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the District of Delaware. “Contracts signed in 2021 proved to be priced below where the manufacturing costs were ultimately realized in 2022,” the company noted.”