I am wryly amused. 🙂
In the left’s rush to phase out reliable gasoline-ort-diesel-powered vehicles, sometimes the amusing happens. The City of Brotherly Love, in its desire to go green, bought 25 battery-electric buses from California manufacturer Proterra in 2016.
It didn’t turn out well:
A Proterra electric bus battery caught fire in a South Philly SEPTA depot
There have been several battery-related fires in electric buses and cars.
by Ryan W. Briggs and Thomas Fitzgerald | November 11, 2022 | 12:08 PM EST
A battery power pack in a sidelined electric bus ignited Wednesday at SEPTA’s Southern Bus Depot, occupying city fire crews for hours and delivering another possible setback to efforts to build a low-emission fleet in Philadelphia.
No injuries were reported.
The transit agency bought 25 battery-electric buses from California manufacturer Proterra in 2016, but all have been parked at the depot since 2020 after discovery of cracks in bus frames and performance problems.
That third quoted paragraph is the money line: all 25 Proterra have been parked since 2020, because they were pieces of feces had problems. A SEPTA spokeswoman confirmed that the fire’s origin was traced to lithium ion battery units inside the bus.
Further down:
In 2021, a California transit agency considered shelving its entire Proterra fleet after a blaze the company attributed to “third-party components.” In 2015, a mysterious fire broke out inside a Proterra factory, destroying a bus. The company said that incident involved technology that is no longer in use.
Lithium ion batteries are vulnerable to “thermal overload” and are notoriously difficult to extinguish. They have been linked to similar incidents in electric vehicles made by a variety of manufacturers, including Tesla and General Motors.
Although the buses cost about $1 million each, several times more than diesel or hybrid counterparts, they have been pitched as an alternative that requires less fixed infrastructure than traditional trolleys or trackless trolley buses.
“(S)everal times more”? How many buses was SEPTA not able to purchase, because the agency had blown $24 million on buses that haven’t even been available for the last three years?
The company has continued to attract government grants aimed at reducing carbon emissions. President Joe Biden took a “virtual tour” of a Proterra facility last year.
Even prior to discovery of the cracks, the buses drew complaints about limited battery range and sensitivity to cold temperatures. Some experts believed the cracking may have been caused by overloading the buses with additional batteries to increase longevity.
“Limited battery range and sensitivity to cold temperatures”? Cold temperatures define Pennsylvania from mid-November to mid-March! Sometimes, our town’s big blowout St Patrick’s Day parade was pleasantly warm, with lots of cute girls in not too many clothes partying up-and-down Broadway, warmed by the sun and green beer. But other St Patty’s Day blowouts were marked by temperatures in the low 40s and an icy wind. In 2002-03, I had at least some snow in my yard, continuously, from December 25th to March 15th!
And today’s news?
SEPTA may lose the $24 million it spent on electric battery buses
The 25 Proterra electric buses have been sidelined for more than three years. Proterra’s Chapter 11 filing complicates the next steps.
by Thomas Fitzgerald | September 6, 2023 | 9:35 AM EDT
SEPTA may lose the $24 million it spent on structurally flawed Proterra electric battery buses now that the troubled manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy.
The 25 buses were pulled from Philadelphia’s streets in January 2020 after six months when SEPTA found cracks in their frames and other problems. One of the electric battery buses burst into flames late last year in a South Philly depot.
The Philadelphia Inquirer only locks non-subscribers out of some articles; I wonder why they selected this one. It couldn’t be because they didn’t want too many readers to know what pieces of [insert slang term for feces here] SEPTA bought in trying to save Mother Gaia, could it?
There’s considerably more at the original, but you’ve got to be a subscriber to see it, or check my quotes. 🙂 The first quoted article is not limited to subscribers, so, if you haven’t exceeded your free article limit on the newspaper — I think it’s five articles a month — you can check that. Remember: I subscribe so that you don’t have to!
The transit agency and Proterra had been negotiating over repairs that would get the EV buses back in service. Those talks have not produced a solution, and they were canceled abruptly after the Aug. 7 bankruptcy filing, SEPTA officials said.
“At this point we don’t know what the path forward would be and what SEPTA’s [legal] remedies are, and we can’t say when the buses would come back into service,” said Andrew Busch, an agency spokesperson.
Yeah, well talks to get the manufacturer to make repairs will fail when the manufacturer is running out of money.
Busch said there had been “progress” in talks over getting Proterra to fix the sidelined buses.
The California-based company has been a leader in the drive toward converting transit buses into EVs to meet climate goals, frequently praised by the White House. It makes transit buses, as well as heavy-duty electric drivetrains, batteries and charging technology.
“(F)requently praised by the White House,” huh? Remember Solyndra, and the other green power companies touted by the Obama and Biden White Houses? Hundreds of millions of dollars wasted by the federal government, but I’m sure the executives of these fine companies took home plenty of money.
So, now SEPTA may kiss $24 million goodbye, because a company which can’t pay its bills is unlikely to be able to make SEPTA whole on its deal. Really, even if Proterra weren’t going bankrupt, how could SEPTA be paid back for the three years the buses have just sat there, doing nothing but taking up space, a wasted investment? But this is what happens when business decisions are driven not by business concerns, but by some cockamamie political decisions.