Proterra

Proterra was founded in Golden, Colorado, by Dale Hill in 2004. Hill had previously founded TransTeq, a Denver, Colorado, bus manufacturing company, as well as Alumatech, a manufacturing company that made aluminum dump trailers. TransTeq was best known for building the fleet of "EcoMark" buses used on the 16th Street Mall in Denver that were series hybrids with batteries charged by a generator connected to a small compressed natural gas fueled engine.Proterra would abandon the CNG technology used by its predecessor TransTeq, to take advantage of Federal Transit Administration 's push for alternative fuels and forms of mobility through such programs as the Clean Fuels Grant Program Bus and Bus Facilities, and the TIGER and TIGGER programs, which excluded CNG buses.A prototype of the company's first product, the EcoRide, was first shown at the 2008 APTA Expo. The battery-electric bus had a composite body and range-extending hydrogen fuel cell auxiliary power unit .:?34? Ultimately, the company decided to abandon the APU by the time the bus went on a tour of several cities in California in 2009. The prototype helped secure an order from Southern California's Foothill Transit, which receive several EcoRide BE35 buses in 2010.In February 2010, Proterra announced that it would move its manufacturing plant from Golden to a location in Greenville, South Carolina just outside of the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research . In October 2011, the company announced it would consolidate all operations in Greenville, moving management and research teams from Colorado.Ryan Popple, formerly of Tesla Motors, was appointed CEO in 2014. In 2015, Proterra was awarded a $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission to fund the design, development and construction of the company's battery-electric transit bus manufacturing line in the City of Industry, California. Proterra moved its headquarters from Greenville, South Carolina, to Burlingame, California, in October 2015. Popple served as CEO of Proterra until 2020 when board member Jack Allen was appointed CEO and Popple became the Executive Director. Popple continued to work at Proterra until his death in 2021 In January 2021, the company became publicly listed on the Nasdaq after a reverse takeover of a special-purpose acquisition company, ArcLight Clean Transition Corporation.In December of 2021 Gareth Joyce was appointed CEO effective January 1, 2022, while Jack Allen retired from the CEO role but continued to serve on the board.