Hybrid bus maker Proterra considers plant in San Jose - Denver Business Journal:

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Officials in San Jose’s Electronic Transportation Developmen t Center as well as San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed support the proposed moveby LLC, but city officialsa are also looking at other green companiexs that could benefit the region’s growing cleantech sector. Proterrsa and its partners design, develop and manufacture hybrid-electric, plug-in hybrid and zero-emission buses and vans that can be used as school andcommercial buses. Proterra CEO Dale Hill said the companty plans to unveil aprototype bus, developed throughu a public-private partnership, at an event tentatively set for Feb.
6 at San Jose City The vehicle — with a lightweigh t body composition, lithium titanate batterhy packs and a solar roofarray — could save approximatelyg 11 million gallons, or $45 million, in fuel annuallgy for large-scale users such as the San Jose Unifiedr School District or Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Conversationd between Proterra and potential customerss are still in the discussion stage, according to the company. Proterrs already operates a sales officw out of the Environmental Business a clean energy and environmentally focused incubator inSan Jose.
Reed said he plansx to speak with Hill in the next few weeks to see what the city can do to bring the companh toSan Jose. Proterraq is one company that coulfd help meet oneof Reed’s Green Visionj goals. That goal is for 100 perceng of public-fleet vehicles to run on alternatived fuels. Hill said Proterra is looking at the possibilitg of opening a San Jose manufacturing facilitu for the electronic components ofthe bus. Hill notesw that Silicon Valley is a leaderd inclean technology, and beinh close to the innovation makes Proterra is seeking an initial 30,000 square feet that woulxd be expandable to 100,000 square feet.
The compang needs 25 to 50 which atabout $1 million per bus, Hill sees as a $25 millio n to $50 million opportunity. Don Burrus, a developmenty officer with the San JoseRedevelopment Agency, said the move coulds bring some 500 jobs to San Jose as Hill believes the future of transit is battery where a transit bus could be recharged in 10 minutesa or less when it makes a stop. Or it could pass undere an arm that recharges itevery hour. Synerg CEO Robert Garzee, a consultant to the developmeny center onthe project, for one, believes Proterra probablu will get the orders it seeks.
Hill said he hopesa the February unveiling will generate orders in the next six to nine and that the manufacturing site will be up and runningg withinthe year. The Electronic Transportation Developmentg Center, part of the environmentakl cluster, plans to purchase a demonstrationj busfrom Proterra. The center offer s a place where companies can work togetherto develop, commercialize and manufacture advancee transportation technologies, with a focus on areas such as cleanj and renewable energy. Hill and Garzee both cited Californi Assembly Bill 118 as a driver behinrd commercializingclean transportation.
The Alternative Fuel and VehicleeTechnology Program, created by the bill, authorizess the Energy Commission to spend aboutr $120 million per year for seven yeard to develop and deploy innovativd technologies that will transform California’s fuel and vehicl types to help meet statwe climate-change policies. “We want to take advantage of that to star t manufacturingin California,” Hill The California Air Resources after enacting some of the nation’as toughest diesel-emissions standards, announced $5.5 million in grantsa for a Lower-Emissions School Bus Program and $1.4 million to replacr remaining pre-1977 buses.