Electric bus fleet gains momentum in Greenville

It’s been six years since electric-bus maker Proterra staked its claim in Greenville as a start-up company — yet in the time since, after hundreds of buses produced and running across the county, the nearest electric bus operates 45 minutes away.

The effort to modernize Greenville’s bus system suffered a major blow this past summer as the federal government yet again turned down Greenville County transportation officials’ request for more than $13 million of $500 million in special funding that would have put eight battery-powered buses on the road in addition to a project under way to extend the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

Now, local leaders must reassess how to move forward, and they say they’ve learned some lessons — particularly in the success the neighboring provider Clemson Area Transit had in securing millions in federal money to add to its fleet of electric Proterra buses.

The case for moving to an electric-bus fleet has become stronger as technological advancements show short-terms savings that outweigh traditionally daunting upfront costs, said Greenville County Councilman Butch Kirven, head of the Greenville-Pickens Area Transportation Study group that helps decide how transportation money is spent, including for the Greenville area's agency, Greenlink.

“I now recognize there’s a good economic case to be made in favor of moving toward electric buses, when you add in all the cost savings,” Kirven said.

The shift toward more of a focus on an electric fleet has come, Kirven said, after a recent meeting with Proterra and Clemson transit officials.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Proterra said in an interview with The Greenville News that enough time has passed since the company located to Greenville that having a Proterra bus on the streets of Greenville is more a point of pride now than economic boon.

The company, CEO Ryan Popple said, tried to encourage Greenville transportation officials to seek an alternate federal funding source from the one it had previously lost out on.

The funding source that Greenville sought, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER grant, is “incredibly oversubscribed” nationwide, Popple said. Only 40 applicants received a share of the $500 million allocated for TIGER, which extends beyond bus transit to projects like bike lanes, sidewalks and trains.

Popple said he encouraged Greenville to seek a funding source with better chances of success, through the Federal Transit Administration’s "Low or No Emission Vehicle Deployment Program," which set aside $55 million.

"The odds of winning TIGER are just very, very low," he said.

Clemson's transit agency won $4 million of the "LoNo" money as part of a $9 million plan to create an all-electric fleet to Clemson University's campus, Clemson Area Transit general manager Al Babinicz said.

That's on top of six Proterra buses that CAT already operates in Seneca.

A new opportunity will present itself in the next two months for Greenlink to piggyback on a funding request CAT is making for more bus money, now that both agencies are considered part of one urban planning zone, Babinicz said.

"I think Greenville wants electric buses in the community," he said. "It's something that's going to require some decision making in the next couple months."

The savings wouldn't be long-range, Babinicz said. The money saved on fuel and maintenance of diesel buses, he said, can be recouped within two years.

The cost for an electric bus has fallen to about $750,000, not far out of range of traditional fuel buses, he said. CAT hasn't had to use a single gallon of diesel fuel in two years in Seneca, he said.

The agency has been surprised by the amount of savings — about $500,000 per year, Babinicz said. Money for fuel and maintenance can then be invested into capital, he said.

CAT is seizing on the opportunity of a five-year, $305 billion transportation bill that is fully funded, he said. The agency's award this year marks the first year of the available funding.

"No one has a crystal ball to tell what happens after that fifth year," Babinicz said, "so the time to act is immediately."

Proterra recently announced its new Catalyst E2 series, which the company said logged more than 600 miles on one charge on a test track and has a nominal range of between 194 to 350 miles. The new bus would have the capacity to serve any of Greenlink's routes, Popple said.

The challenge for Greenville is resources and the will that the public has to fund transit, said Matt Carter, chairman of Greenlink's board of directors.

"It's not from a lack of pressure," Carter said.

Greenlink's funding falls as short as $20 million compared to Columbia and Charleston, he said, and Greenville has to operate a larger, job-based system and doesn't have the funding subsidy that CAT charges Clemson students.

The agency is run by the city, but the board sets its own policy.

When it came time to seek funding, Greenville already had funneled its resources into TIGER after local leaders said they received strong feedback from DOT officials that it would have a good chance of winning.

Stakeholders already had committed money to meet the local match, and Greenville couldn't commit the money to two different scenarios, Carter said.

"Was it the right choice? I don't know," Carter said. "There's no assurance we would have been awarded the LoNo grant. As soon as it's feasible, both financially and to serve the routes, we'd very much like to take advantage of electric buses."

Funding for at least one electric bus could be on the way, Greenville Mayor Knox White said.

Greenlink is hoping that $300,000 in money from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control will come to help pay for an electric bus, he said.

"My big thing has been let's get the first one here," White said. "We need to find a way to get on the bandwagon. This is where local transportation is moving, and we need to find a way."

In 2010, Proterra, as a start-up company, moved from Golden, Colorado, to Greenville. Last year, the company moved its headquarters to California's Bay Area, but kept its plant in Greenville.

The company plans to keep manufacturing operations in Greenville, Popple said, as it sits in a strategic location to take advantage of what he said is a fertile market in the Southeast, where transit has taken on a new importance after years of lagging other regions.

The company has sold more than 312 buses to 35 transit agencies, and Popple said he's confident Greenville will see a Proterra bus on the street.

“We'll get it figured out," he said. "There’s no pressure from our side. There’s no need for Greenville to worry about economically supporting Proterra.”