EVERETT — Everett Transit is seeking guidance from federal authorities after Proterra, a California-based bus maker, filed for bankruptcy on Monday.
The city-owned transit company owns nine Proterra electric buses, nearly half of its battery-powered fleet.
Everett Transit officials said they learned of the company’s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on Tuesday.
It’s not clear how the bus maker’s financial reorganization might affect Everett Transit’s fleet, which consists of 23 diesel buses and 19 electric, including nine Proterra models.
“We are looking into this to determine any potential impacts,” city spokesperson Simone Tarver told The Daily Herald on Wednesday. “We have reached out to our local and federal authorities for guidance.”
Proterra said it will continue to operate as usual while it attempts to strengthen its financial position, according to a company statement on Monday.
A chapter 11 filing allows a company to reorganize its business and pay its creditors over time.
Proterra has sold more than 1,300 buses to 135 transit agencies in the U.S. and Canada, since its 2004 founding, according to the company’s website.
Everett Transit bought its first Proterra electric buses in 2018 with a $3.4 million grant from the federal government plus a city match of nearly $600,000.
The 42-foot Catalyst E2 models seat 31 and have a range of about 250 miles between charges. It takes about four hours to recharge the batteries.
In 2020, Everett Transit bought several more Proterra electric buses with a base price of $666,082.
The 40-foot buses were paid in full by a Federal Transit Administration grant of $1.3 million and a state Department of Ecology grant that stemmed from a $28.4 million settlement with Volkswagen for installing software in some of its diesel-powered vehicles that was designed to cheat emissions tests.
In both cases, the electric buses replaced older buses, some more than 20 years old, that are more costly to maintain and only get about 4 to 6 miles per gallon of diesel fuel.
Everett Transit plans to replace more diesel buses next year with 10 Gillig-brand electric buses. Gillig is one of the largest transit bus manufacturers in North America.
Everett Transit has a goal of zero emissions by 2028. Nineteen of its 42 buses are electric.
Proterra introduced zero-emission, electric transit buses to the North American market in 2010.
It now operates three business lines: Proterra Transit, which makes zero-emission transit buses; Proterra Powered, which develops battery systems; and Proterra Energy, which provides charging equipment, according to Mass Transit, a trade journal.
The company has operations in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and South Carolina. It listed at least $500 million in assets and liabilities in the chapter 11 filing, according to a Bloomberg report.
Janice Podsada: 425-339-3097; jpodsada@heraldnet.com;
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