Sunday, January 21, 2024

The Biden/Granholm's Fave Busses: Dead

We hope she exercised her options and watched them drop like stones.

...Joe Biden's energy secretary pick, Jennifer Granholm, has disclosed millions of dollars of investments in corporate and private business interests, including millions in companies linked to the energy industry...

... Among her biggest assets are $1 million to $5 million worth of stock options she can exercise in Proterra Inc., a company that designs and manufactures zero-emission electric buses...

Umnnhhhh......that's a giant bowl of Not Good.

...Asheville’s ambitious leap into eco-friendly transportation has morphed into a financial sinkhole and a source of frustration for city officials.

In 2018, the city heralded the purchase of five state-of-the-art electric buses, each with a price tag of over $616,796, abc13 News reported.

Fast forward to today, and this green dream has morphed into a financial nightmare, with most of the fleet idled due to a series of almost unbelievable misfortunes....

Tell us more!!

 ...the expenses don’t stop at the purchase price. Morriss reveals a staggering total cost per bus nearing $1 million, including infrastructure for chargers and annual costs like leasing batteries and electric charges. And then there’s maintenance – another $251,000 spent on items like replacing traction drive controls for all buses. Maintenance director John McDaniel adds to the tale of woe, noting the replacement of power inverters at $14,000 each....

Asheville is in North Carolina and not exactly a cold-winter city.  The January average temp is 38 degrees, range of 27 to 48 degrees (average)/day.  Compare to Milwaukee with average of 23, range 16-30.  So this is ugly:

... The operational buses can barely make it through a day’s work. McDaniel notes that in winter, the range is about 78 miles – roughly three airport trips – before needing hours of charging. And overnight, the buses get cold, gobbling up a significant part of their charge just to warm up....

That's Joe Biden-like performance.  Figures that he endorsed Proterra, eh?

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