Proterra rolls out its first EV battery on the US East Coast
Proterra’s new Powered 1 factory in Greer, South Carolina, has produced its first EV battery.
The Burlingame, California-based maker of electric buses, drive trains, and chargers for heavy-duty commercial vehicles is expected to begin deliveries of battery systems from its South Carolina factory in the first quarter of 2023.
Powered 1 has started production of drivetrains and other ancillary systems, such as high-voltage junction boxes, that are part of electric medium- and heavy-duty EVs.
Powered 1 is Proterra’s first battery production plant in the Eastern US with multiple gigawatt hours of annual production capacity planned at the factory. It’s Proterra’s third battery factory in the US.
Proterra has already created more than 100 new jobs at the 327,000-square-foot Greer factory, which it announced only a year ago. Proterra currently has a facility in Greenville, South Carolina, but batteries aren’t made there.
Proterra CEO Gareth Joyce said in a statement:
At full scale, we believe Powered 1 will be the largest battery manufacturing facility in the United States dedicated exclusively to electric commercial vehicles and we’re poised to meet the incredible opportunities that lie ahead for zero-emission transportation.
The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, where it performs much of its R&D and battery engineering. In December 2020, Proterra opened a battery factory in the same location as its EV bus manufacturing facility in metro Los Angeles.
Read more: Komatsu’s first electric mid-size hydraulic excavator packs a Proterra battery
Photos: Proterra
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LiveWire, the electric motorcycle brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, has just announced its latest electric motorcycle model. The new LiveWire S2 Alpanista is built on the same platform as the brand’s last two models, leveraging the Arrow platform as a versatile foundation for several diverse bikes.
The Arrow platform first received its debut with the LiveWire S2 Del Mar, which was then followed by the S2 Mulholland.
LiveWire announced that a high-performance electric maxi-scooter would be produced on the Arrow platform, but not before the company rolled out the S2 Alpinista. “The Alpinista is LiveWire’s first sport standard,” explained the company, “equipped with 17” wheels and tires, blending the best of street, sport, and hyper-tourer characteristics.”
The recently unveiled S2 Alpinista is mechanically quite similar to the two previous models sharing the platform. The 10.5 kWh battery that serves as the main structure of the bike will offer a maximum range of 120 miles (193 km) per charge under city riding conditions. It can be recharged with a Level 2 charger from 20-80% in just 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The 433 lb (196 kg) bike can achieve a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of just 3.0 seconds, thanks to its powerful 63 kW (84 hp) motor. The S2 Alpinista can also reach an electronically limited top speed of 99 mph (159 km/h).
Priced at US $15,999 and already available at LiveWire dealerships in North America and Europe, the S2 Alpinista officially becomes the most affordable LiveWire electric motorcycle available to date, undercutting the $16,249 S2 Del Mar electric street tracker and the $16,499 Mulholland electric sport cruiser.
“Alpinista reimagines the S2 by combining the urban agility of a supermoto with the do-it-all nature of a touring bike, creating a practical and thrilling sport standard,” explained the brand.
The smaller 17″ wheels help reduce the seat height of the bike, and combined with the Dunlop Roadsmart IV tires, the street-optimized bike is ideal for “both daily commutes and spirited rides through winding roads.”
The S2 Alpinista comes with 6-axis IMU from Bosch providing cornering-enhanced antilock braking and cornering-enhanced traction control systems, in addition to four preset ride modes and two custom modes.
Now the third model launched on the Arrow platform, the S2 Alpanista underscores the versatility of LiveWire’s workhorse. The approach was intended to allow the e-motorcycle offshoot to quickly innovate with multiple styles of motorcycles all sharing key structural and drivetrain components. The move has largely been seen as an engineering success, with three models hitting the road in under three years. However, sales have yet to reach targets set by LiveWire as the more premium electric motorcycle industry has experienced a rocky few years.
As a LiveWire S2 Del Mar owner myself, I can attest to both the performance and enjoyable experience of bikes built on the platform, though I do find myself in a somewhat smaller community than LiveWire had likely hoped for. With the backing of its powerful older brother H-D, which retains a controlling stake in the company, LiveWire has enjoyed the relative freedom to cruise for its first few years and focus on motorcycle development and rollouts, with profitability hopefully coming over the horizon in due time.
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