Proterra, the electric bus pioneer dubbed the ‘Tesla of the bus industry,’ declares bankruptcy in the Bay Area.

A Bay Area-based manufacturer of electric buses, batteries and charging stations — once heralded by TechCrunch as the “Tesla of electric buses” — has filed for bankruptcy.

Proterra, an automotive technology firm based in the South Bay suburb of Burlingame that developed public transit buses powered by batteries, announced Monday that it voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but stated that it would operate as usual during the process.

“Proterra is at the forefront of the innovations that are driving commercial vehicle electrification. We know we’re building industry-leading products that our customers want and need,” Proterra CEO Gareth Joyce said in the news release announcing the bankruptcy filing. “The foundation we have built has set the stage for decarbonization across the commercial vehicle industry as a whole, and we recognize the great potential in all of our product offerings to enable this important transformation.”

The company’s share price has fallen drastically from the nearly $17 a share it had when it went public. The company’s stock sat at a mere 17 cents as of Tuesday afternoon.

Founded in 2004, Proterra was the first company to bring zero-emission electric transit buses to North America — in addition to manufacturing batteries and electric chargers. San Francisco’s Muni and transit agencies for Napa County, Santa Cruz County and the city of Santa Rosa have Proterra buses in their fleets.

Proterra went public through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in June 2021 — a move that has proved to be risky for tech companies throughout Silicon Valley — raising $640 million in the deal. The company had estimated its valuation at around $1.6 billion in the months leading up to its Nasdaq debut. The company also hired leadership with an impressive pedigree: Its late co-founder and CEO, Ryan Popple, was a senior finance director at Tesla, while former chief operating officer Josh Ensign had previously served stints at Tesla and manufacturing titan Honeywell International.

Joyce attributed the bankruptcy in a statement to “various market and macroeconomic headwinds,” as has been the foundational struggle for the tech industry over the past year. He added that the company would separate its product lines during the bankruptcy process and focus on its electric vehicle battery technology business “for the benefit of our many stakeholders.” Even though the company’s primary source of revenue is bus sales, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from March, it has manufactured only around 1,000 electric transit buses since 2010.

The company amassed an accumulated deficit of $1.1 billion by the end of 2022 — despite generating $749.2 million in revenue over the past three years, according to the March SEC filing. 

The filing also cautioned that the company “may not achieve or sustain positive gross margin or profitability in the future.” 

Hear of anything going on at Proterra or another Silicon Valley tech company? Contact SFGATE tech editor Joshua Bote securely on Signal at 707-742-3756 or email him at joshua.bote@sfgate.com.