Charlotte Airport In North Carolina Adds 5 Proterra Electric Buses

Proterra continues to make headway in replacing polluting combustion buses with its clean fully electric buses with a new deal that will see five 35-foot Proterra Catalyst E2 buses heading off for Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A Proterra Electric Bus. Image courtesy: Proterra

The five new buses will be accompanied by five of Proterra’s 125 kW EVSE charging systems. The chargers will use the J1772-CCS Type 1 DC fast charging standard to deliver high power charges to each of the buses when not in use. Utilizing a common fast charging standard for the stations ensures that future electric vehicles that are added to the fleet or for other applications at the airport will be able to share the charging stations.

“Airports are an ideal use case for electric vehicle technology because of their predictable circulator routes and potential for shared charging infrastructure with other service vehicles in the fleet,” said Proterra CEO Ryan Popple. “It’s exciting to see airports from coast to coast, like CLT, make the commitment to transition 100 percent of their fleets to clean, quiet zero-emission buses.”

A rendering of a bank of 60 kW Proterra chargers. Image courtesy: Proterra

With the addition of the new Proterra buses, CLT becomes the ninth airport to purchase Proterra’s fully electric buses for ground transportation. Electrifying ground transportation at airports continues to be an opportunity to reduce base emission levels and, in some markets, to save money at the same time. CLT opted to go with Proterra to take action against its sustainability goals in a way that is cost effective and results in an improved experience for employees and airport guests. Switching from a diesel bus to a fully electric Proterra bus reduces emissions by a staggering 230,000 pounds of CO2 per year.

“At CLT, we are dedicated to implementing sustainable practices that are cost effective and that create a better experience for our employees and visitors,” said CLT’s COO Jack Christine. “CLT has the goal of fully transitioning its fleet to zero-emission vehicles, which brings both economic and environmental benefits to the airport and Charlotte community,” Christine added.

CLT stepped into the new electric bus technology with assistance from the Georgia State Contract. In this process, the state of Georgia put Proterra through a lengthy vetting process that ultimately resulted in the selection of Proterra as an approved statewide vendor for fully electric buses. The central approval process makes it easier for other entities within Georgia to build on the up front vetting process and a standardized state contract to make purchasing Proterra buses easier, faster, and cheaper. If not for the central contract, each agency would have to define their own process for bringing on new vendors, vetting their products, and creating new contracts.

If you are in the market for a Tesla, find someone locally who you know (like, someone you know in real life) and use their referral code. If you don’t know anyone with a Tesla, go find someone at your local Supercharger and try not to be a creep and ask them for their referral code (they won’t mind). If that doesn’t work, ask a co-worker or a distant relative, post on Facebook or Twitter, or just hit up Google. If all of that fails and it’s an odd-numbered day and not too sunny out, you can use my Tesla referral link to get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging, I guess. Here is my referral code: http://ts.la/kyle623