Shock lingers from short-circuited electric bus purchase

As the first 25 electric buses have rolled in for the South Dade Transitway when it opens July 21, Miami-Dade keeps battling its last major buy of 75 electric buses six years ago, trying to determine if the successor to the manufacturer will deal with the mess.

Commissioners last week grappled with electric bus issues, trying to figure out which bus contract is which and whether we have poured tens of millions of dollars down the drain. Answers have never been reassuring or clear, as this column said last May, and they still aren’t.

Still debated is the county’s 2019 purchase contract for 75 electric buses and 75 charging stations from Proterra, a battery manufacturer that had recently begun making electric buses, steered by a CEO and top staff who came to the company from Tesla.

Partway through that contract Proterra went bankrupt in 2023 with only 69 of the 75 buses delivered, and its bus assets were sold to Phoenix Motor Inc. in a deal that closed in January 2024. The county then began talks with Phoenix about service and warranty protection for the Proterra fleet, which was already facing major problems staying on the road.

Incredibly, that remains the status, as commissioners were told last week in response to questions by Kionne McGhee.

“We started experiencing breakdowns about two years into the buses being in operation,” said Josiel Ferrer-Diaz, the acting transportation director, who wasn’t with the county when the mess began.

“Have we looked into any legal possibilities of getting money back or a discount?” Commissioner McGhee asked.

“Proterra filed for bankruptcy. They were acquired by another company,” Phoenix, Mr. Ferrer-Diaz responded. “We’re working with that company to try to get our warranty honored, and at this point, commissioner, we’re exploring all options in order to either be made whole in terms of warranty or seeking other avenues.” 

At the outset with Proterra, Mr. McGhee recalled, “I warned the county that this company was not financially stable and they would be having issues with those buses, and 2025 here we are.”

As it turned out, it didn’t matter what warnings came from whom, because the county administration granted the contract to Proterra in June 2019 and commissioners weren’t asked for approval until four months later, far too late to heed any warnings.

Then came a breach of protocol, an inspector general’s report subsequently stated, revolving around “the change of administration, covid pandemic and other issues related to delays in implementation of the project and some confusion relating to pricing and dates,” resulting in the county then overpaying Proterra $5.25 million for the buses.

The first warning flag should have been the choice of Burlington, CA, based Proterra for 75 buses when the company in its short history had averaged only seven buses per sale and the county itself had no relevant experience because none of its 754 buses then was electric.

In choosing cutting-edge Proterra, the county to its detriment passed over another bidder, New Flyer of America, which has been making buses since 1930, for a shiny new innovator that is now gone. 

The county solicited proposals for electric buses in 2016 and got three bids. It began negotiations with Proterra in 2018. At the time of the purchase, Miami Today reported that Proterra won on “evaluation scores [and] ranking,” according to a memo from former deputy mayor Alina Hudak.

With the bad taste of the past in the county’s mouth, Commissioner René García asked last week about the latest purchase, 100 new electric buses, most of which are to serve the South Dade Transitway, including the 25 new arrivals. This time the county did choose New Flyer, one of only two US electric bus manufacturers still in business when six years ago there had been 10.

“Do we have any assurance that these buses now that we have are going to work better than the previous ones that we purchased and really squandered that money away?” Mr. García asked.

“They have gone through extensive testing,” Mr. Ferrer-Diaz replied. “The difference here is that this new company is a very reputable company in terms of provision of buses and has been in business for many, many years and provided many of our buses in the past. So there is a higher level of trust in terms of the provision of these buses.”

“If there was a lesson learned” in the Proterra fiasco, Sean Adgerson, deputy transit director, told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last April, “I think slowing down a little and letting the bleeding edge technology cut others before we get cut was probably a better way of dealing with as things emerge in the marketplace.”

There’s one other vital lesson: let commissioners vote on contracts as required before locking them in. Share the credit, the blame, and the instinct that “they would be having issues with those buses.”

The post Shock lingers from short-circuited electric bus purchase appeared first on Miami Today.