How the ‘Tesla of buses’ went bust

When a door broke loose on a new electric bus in Des Moines, Iowa, and nearly fell off, it was one in a long list of problems for the local transit agency.

The city began using its fleet of seven electric buses, made by the startup Proterra, in 2021. The vehicles soon showed defects in the suspensions, weatherproofing, and wheelchair ramps. After only 18 months of use—and unsuccessful attempts to get the manufacturer to fix the problems—the agency had to pull them off the road.

Other cities had similar issues. In Philadelphia, Proterra buses were sidelined in 2020 after the heavy batteries started to crack the vehicle chassis. (This summer, one of those vehicles started a fire while it was in storage, destroying 16 other buses.) In Austin, 46 new Proterra buses were taken out of service