Proterra Inc., the electric bus maker touted by President Joe Biden that filed for bankruptcy this week, was the recipient of millions of dollars in U.S. Covid-relief government aid, Bloomberg News reported. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company was awarded a $10 million loan from the Paycheck Protection Program by the Trump administration in 2020 that was forgiven in May 2022, according to a company filing Wednesday. Proterra reported it as a net gain of $10.2 million after interest payments were refunded by the Small Business Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission filing said. The COVID-relief aid came on top of other federal government incentives and support for the electric bus industry more broadly, as well as repeated shout-outs for the company from Biden. Proterra was also widely expected to benefit from new demand for electric buses fostered by last year’s infrastructure and climate laws, including more than $5 billion earmarked for replacing existing buses with zero-emission models and new tax credits for battery and clean-vehicle manufacturing. The White House and the Small Business Administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. An administration official said policies championed by Biden and other Democrats were responsible for an increase in electric-vehicle demand and pointed to a Cox Automotive study that said EV sales hit a record high last quarter. Some 96% of Paycheck Protection Plan loans were forgiven, according to an October report by the SBA. The nearly 20-year-old manufacturer of electric buses and batteries was valued at $1.6 billion when it went public in June 2021 and has drawn praise from Biden who went on a virtual tour of a company facility earlier that year amid White House plans to electrify the nation’s fleet of transit and school buses.
