Plant could create up to 1,300 jobs

GREENVILLE -- As many as 1,300 jobs for Greenville County are on the line with a Colorado company's decision about where to build an electric bus factory.

Proterra LLC also is considering Ohio and Indiana sites for the plant, said an executive with the company.

"We are in the final stages of considering the complete package that South Carolina is offering us and hope to make a decision in a matter of weeks," said Joshua Goldman, Proterra's director of business development.

He said Proterra would like to establish a research office at Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research if it picks Greenville.

Dale Hill, Proterra's founder and chairman, and Jeff Granato, president and chief executive officer, were at ICAR last week to hear U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu speak, Goldman said.

Greenville County Council has voted to give Proterra property tax breaks and other incentives, including nearly $7.5 million from county-issued bonds, in exchange for building the plant there.

County Administrator Joe Kernell said the tax-exempt bonds were authorized as part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan and would function as a low-interest loan to the company without counting as county debt.

Goldman said Proterra plans to spend at least $68 million on the plant in the first seven years.

Companies that supply parts to the plant should create 5,000 jobs on top of the 1,300 positions at the plant itself, but not all of the supplier jobs would be located in the same state as the plant, Goldman said.

He said the five-year-old start-up company, which has about 40 employees, is scheduled to deliver 20 buses next year and expects to be selling more than 500 buses annually in several years.

Most of the orders so far are from cities buying the buses with economic stimulus money from the federal government, he said.

A prototype bus is being operated in Columbia as a demonstration project.

That bus, developed with funding from the Federal Transit Administration and private equity firms, is a hybrid model powered by a battery and a hydrogen fuel cell, Goldman said.