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Proterra biggest EV bus maker in the US files for bankruptcy protection
The company has failed to turn a profit on the 1,300 EV buses it has sold across North America. It plans to continue operations after a restructuring. 8 August 2023
Proterra, the largest U.S. electric-bus maker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Monday.
It’s a shocking turn for the nearly two-decade-old U.S. company, which has sought to compete against giant Chinese rival BYD and to partner with traditional bus-makers in the emerging North American and European electric bus markets.
www.canarymedia.com...
Proterra, the Burlingame, California, company that makes electric buses as well as large trucks, vans and components for other manufacturers, has filed for bankruptcy.
The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round but it’s not a smooth ride when the powerplant is a battery. Proterra, the Burlingame, California, company that makes electric buses as well as large trucks, vans and components for other manufacturers, has filed for bankruptcy. Just as Barack Obama hyped and funded solar panel maker Solyndra before it failed, President Joe Biden promoted the company in 2021, declaring that it was “getting us in the game.” He also forgave its $10 million COVD-aid loan.
Unlike Solyndra, which lasted only six years, Proterra is not a new company. It’s been around for almost two decades. It’s considered “an early pioneer in the commercial electric vehicle industry.” Just two years ago, it was expanding. The company took in federal EV funding, COVID aid, had hundreds of millions in cash, and was producing “very meaningful revenue.”
Yet it has been dragged down by the EV anchor, failing “to turn a profit on its core electric bus manufacturing operations, as well as the drivetrain, battery and EV charger businesses it launched over the past five years,” Canary Media reports.
In fact, it loses money on every electric bus it sells. That segment of its business has been pulling down Proterra’s other operations due to in part the capital intensity required to build electric vehicles.
That’s not an isolated occurrence. Ford loses more than $66,000 for each EV it sells. Other EV makers are finding that consumers aren’t interested in their automobiles. Korean luxury brand Genesis only a few weeks ago had nearly a year’s worth of unsold EV inventory on hand.
***SNIP***
Maybe the truths about EVs are finally running them down. They’re no more eco-friendly than internal-combustion vehicles, and might be less so. They don’t have tailpipes, but, with some exceptions, their batteries are charged from power generated by plants that burn natural gas and coal, and emit the same greenhouse gases that a hi-test guzzling Big Detroit V8 does. The carbon footprint of EV production is larger than the carbon footprint left behind by the manufacture of conventional cars. The mining needed for the components in their batteries is a dirty business.
www.pacificresearch.org...
Will Heavy EVs Destroy America's Roads?
Even if streets aren't buckling under the weight of battery-electric pickup trucks, these extra-heavy vehicles do have an effect on a road's lifespan. The latest full-size battery-electric pickups and SUVs boast substantial driving ranges—in the neighborhood of 300 miles—but there's a price to pay for harnessing so many electrons. These larger-than-life trucks feature equally enormous batteries that drive their curb weights up to levels not often seen outside commercial-spec vehicles.
Some 2022 models of the Ford Lightning and Rivian R1T battery-electric trucks tip the scales at between 6,500 and 6,700 pounds. The GMC Hummer EV truck checks in at an astonishing 9,063 pounds. These monster machines weigh between two and three times the mass of a standard compact car (the GMC's 2,923-pound battery weighs more than a 2022 Toyota GR86). With the Hummer surpassing even the heftiest of 3/4-ton heavy-duty pickups on the scale, what does that mean for American roads designed to support a much lighter fleet of passenger vehicles?
Some EV drivers are finding that their tires wear out more rapidly than they had with traditional internal combustion-driven vehicles—in some cases, 20 percent faster.
The problem has multiple causes. Many EVs are heavier than regular cars of a similar size, which puts more load on the tires. When combined with the almost instant torque provided by electric motors, that can lead to leaving rubber on the road—even when a driver isn’t attempting to burn rubber.
www.sciencefriday.com...#:~:text=Many%20EVs%20are%20heavier%20than,t%20attempting%20to%20burn%20rubber.
They would have to start making and selling about 16 million vehicles a year considering approximately 115 million vehicles are currently used daily by 150 million people driving to and from work in the USA.
Who do you think runs the computers, builds houses, runs the plants that manufacture electronics, runs the power plants that provide electricity, repairs roadways, repairs electronics, repairs cars, installs dishwashers etc, etc? It's not the uber-elites.
We hold them hostage.
* * *
I doubt people will be happy when they own nothing.
They would have to increase public transportation to accommodate maybe approximately 25 million? people, because I sure don't see all 150m riding to work instead of driving.
Which by the way I believe Covid19 was set up to be a catalyst for but it didn't work.
originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: StoutBroux
They would have to increase public transportation to accommodate maybe approximately 25 million? people, because I sure don't see all 150m riding to work instead of driving.
In the USA there would certainly have to be an increase, hgand a general improvement, too, in public transportation. Not in other industrialized nations; American public transport is both inadequate and primitive for the country it is. But I am sure the country can cope.
Which by the way I believe Covid19 was set up to be a catalyst for but it didn't work.
If you believe a cabal of scheming elites secretly rule the world by means such as this, why are you still supporting capitalism and free enterprise? Isn't that how the elites of today became elites?
(I ask out of curiosity only; I too believe in capitalism and free enterprise, but I don't believe in cabals of scheming elites, so there's no logical contradiction there.)
originally posted by: IndieA
Who would own the self-driving cars?
originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: darkbake
I doubt people will be happy when they own nothing.
I wonder why you doubt that. Jesus, Buddha, Plato and the founder of Jainism, Mahavira, all taught that attachment to material possessions creates amxiety and unhappiness. Many other moral teachers and philosophers have taught the same.
If you know better than they, please teach me.