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Philadelphia's electric bus fleet has disappeared
Hot Air ^ | July 17,2021 | JAZZ SHAW

Posted on 07/17/2021 7:38:43 PM PDT by Hojczyk

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of the deep-blue cities that’s been priding itself in leading the charge against climate change for years now. Back in 2016, they decided to establish a position as an early adopter of electric vehicle technology on a large scale to reduce their carbon footprint.

The city purchased 25 electric buses from a company called Protera at a staggering price tag of nearly one million dollars apiece and put them into operation. But barely four years later, every one of the buses had been pulled from service and is deemed unusable. What went so horribly wrong to produce such a result? As the Free Beacon reports this week, just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

More than two dozen electric Proterra buses first unveiled by the city of Philadelphia in 2016 are already out of operation, according to a WHYY investigation.

The entire fleet of Proterra buses was removed from the roads by SEPTA, the city’s transit authority, in February 2020 due to both structural and logistical problems—the weight of the powerful battery was cracking the vehicles’ chassis, and the battery life was insufficient for the city’s bus routes. The city raised the issues with Proterra, which failed to adequately address the city’s concerns.

The city paid $24 million for the 25 new Proterra buses, subsidized in part by a $2.6 million federal grant.

(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: automotive; electric; jennifergranholm; pennsylvania; philadelphia; proterra; scam; septa; septic
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To: Hojczyk

What else is happening?

U.S. Postal Service Awards Contract to Launch Multi-Billion-Dollar Modernization of Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet


21 posted on 07/17/2021 7:56:19 PM PDT by hapnHal
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To: Hojczyk

So the plan went as ‘planned.’

I would love to know which politician had their fingers in the bus manufacturing company.


22 posted on 07/17/2021 7:56:49 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: PeterPrinciple

Seller knows there are other fools out there .... one born and elected every minute.


23 posted on 07/17/2021 7:58:18 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Corrupt Slow Joe Biden is the Bolshevik sock puppet.)
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To: Hojczyk

How much of the $24 million was kicked back to Philly Dem politicians?


24 posted on 07/17/2021 7:59:02 PM PDT by Rebelbase (Play with knives long enough and you will eventually bleed.)
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To: PeterPrinciple

the weight of the powerful battery was cracking the vehicles’ chassis, and the battery life was insufficient for the city’s bus routes.
No one saw that coming?>>> the cities buss routes are pretty idiotic. They still run the routes of all the consolidated lines from the 50’s. On market street, where there is a subway and trolley under the road, there are about 11 bus routes.


25 posted on 07/17/2021 8:00:18 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: PeterPrinciple

When i was a kid we had trolly cars. They ran on electricity and tracks that were laid in the roads.


26 posted on 07/17/2021 8:01:20 PM PDT by Ronald77
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To: Hojczyk

There was a trolley line that ran vehicles that looked like those commonly seen in 1950’s when I was last in Philly.

I initially thought the post was referring to these.


27 posted on 07/17/2021 8:02:33 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Paladin2
The Boston area had electric buses that ran off an overhead catenary.

Atlanta did, as well, until the Civil Rights movement destroyed it. The last electric buses ran in 1963.

28 posted on 07/17/2021 8:10:02 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: kvanbrunt2

“They still run the routes of all the consolidated lines from the 50’s.”

When the DC subway was put into service, many bus routes were changed to feed into the subway. Many people had to pay more to commute even after credits and transfers.

The Atlanta system at one time operated in a fashion to avoid this. A bus would pull into a restricted area, one would transfer to & ride the subway without paying more, and one could the catch another bus in another restricted area without paying more.


29 posted on 07/17/2021 8:10:58 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Hojczyk

Those buses had a lot of copper that was sold for scrap. Who would notice, right?


30 posted on 07/17/2021 8:13:10 PM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: Hojczyk

So, how much electricity did that boondoggle waste?


31 posted on 07/17/2021 8:17:11 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: ocrp1982
It’s Electric!!! It seems that every single time Leftists crow about EV’s/ Wind/Solar, etc...the end result is a total disaster.

San Francisco has had electric buses since I was a kid. They're powered by overhead lines.

32 posted on 07/17/2021 8:18:40 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org)
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To: Hojczyk

“the weight of the powerful battery was cracking the vehicles’ chassis”

Having lived in a city run by Democrats while in college, I can think of another possible reason for the cracking.

My mom hated the potholes in Baltimore.


33 posted on 07/17/2021 8:19:55 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Hojczyk
Over weight and under specification batteries?
Under specification frames?
Now the buses are missing ? or simply parked?
$25,000,000.00 for 25 buses?
12 million for buses and 13 million for politicians?
If this was a city in the real world, this alone would have triggered a corruption investigation. But since Philadelphia is a Utopian Paradise, it is simply business as usual.
Mama's don't let you babies grow up to be cowboys, let’m be politicians. The American way to real wealth.
34 posted on 07/17/2021 8:21:18 PM PDT by Tupelo (Old, Tired, Cranky and Disgusted)
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To: exDemMom

“San Francisco has had electric buses since I was a kid. They’re powered by overhead lines.” Those are not BUSES. They are Trolleys. They are NOT battery Powered. Sheesh.


35 posted on 07/17/2021 8:24:51 PM PDT by ocrp1982 ( Bibicly)
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To: Paladin2

“Within two years, [Frank J.] Sprague had contracts to construct 113 street rail systems, and the within a decade horse-drawn streetcars had virtually disappeared from America’s cities, replaced by an estimated 13,000 miles of urban streetcar tracks.”

https://www.nndb.com/people/904/000173385/

“In addition to revolutionizing urban rail systems, Sprague made key improvements to elevator technology.”


36 posted on 07/17/2021 8:29:17 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Paladin2

“The Boston area had electric buses that ran off an overhead catenary.”

Detroit had the same thing when I was growing up until they were replaced by Diesel buses. Most of the downtown area was cris-crossed with overhead wires. Each bus had a frame on top that connected to the wires. No batteries required.

Fully electric vehicles are stupid. Hybrids make a lot more sense because they can charge as they go and don’t require an unreliable, expensive power grid to charge them.


37 posted on 07/17/2021 8:30:04 PM PDT by 43north (Its hard to stop a man when he knows he's right and he keeps on comin'.)
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To: Brian Griffin

And then after WWII GM introduced City Buses.


38 posted on 07/17/2021 8:30:42 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Critical Marx Theory is The SOLUTION....)
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To: PGR88

“I realized places like Philadelphia and Chicago are really not so different at all from South Africa”

The pictures made it look like South Africa was a more pleasant place, which made the destruction even more shocking.


39 posted on 07/17/2021 8:31:59 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Tupelo

A standard city bus normally costs around $400,000. Making it hybrid adds about $100,000.


40 posted on 07/17/2021 8:33:46 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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