Electric Vehicle Company Heavily Promoted by Biden Admin Goes Bankrupt

Proterra, an electric bus manufacturing company promoted by the Biden administration, had everything it needed to succeed - and failed anyway.

As the Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross reported: 

Proterra cited "various market and macroeconomic headwinds" in a Chapter 11 filing on Monday, which came after the California-based firm cut hundreds of jobs earlier this year and restructured hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding debt.

Proterra stood to rake in millions from Biden's infrastructure and green energy initiatives, the former of which included at least $5 billion in spending on electric buses alone. Biden's flagship climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, also includes spending to help cities convert from diesel buses to electric buses, a major incentive for companies like Proterra.

JoAnn Covington, Proterra's chief legal officer, acknowledged last year that tax credits and federal grants under Biden's bills were a major incentive for the company. Grants to purchase electric buses and to create electric vehicle charging infrastructure would ​"open up opportunities to accelerate adoption of battery-electric and zero-emissions vehicles to all the other commercial segments on the cusp of being electrified," Covington said.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm held non-public shares of proterra, which she sold in mid 2021 to an undisclosed buyer, pocketing over a $1 million profit in the process. She pledged to disclose the buyer, but never did. Proterra's stock only crashed from there, and Granholm’s 240,000 shares would be worth roughly $60,000 total as of writing, had she still held them. 

Earlier this year in February, Proterra’s CEO Gareth Joyce was appointed by Biden to his Export Council. 

Joe Biden himself promoted Proterra. Last year, during a speech touting electric vehicles, Biden said “Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America, from iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production; to Tesla, our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer; to innovative younger companies like Rivian, building electric trucks, or Proterra, building electric buses, which I saw at a virtual tour last year when I met with the CEO virtually. And they really impressed me.” (Rivian hasn’t done great either, with its stock losing over 80% of its value since it’s public debut). 

The year prior, Biden hosted a virtual White House event that spotlighted Proterra’s business, which included the president of the company giving a virtual tour of the company’s manufacturing facility. 

Evidently, Bidenomics isn’t even working for those it’s supposed to be rigged in favor of.