GREENVILLE, S.C.—A Colorado company will build a $68 million plant to make electric buses in Greenville County, South Carolina officials said Wednesday.
Proterra LLC of Golden, Colo., is expected to announce the plant at a news conference Thursday at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research.
Company officials did not return phone and e-mail messages Wednesday, but have said in the past the plant could eventually employ up to 1,300 people.
State Sen. David Thomas, R-Fountain Inn, said Wednesday he hopes the plant will lead to suppliers and related industries coming to South Carolina like when BMW located its first North American plant in the state.
“This is another bit of light in the darkness of unemployment that has hit us so hard,” Thomas said.
South Carolina has had one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates for more than a year with a record 12.6 percent of the work force looking for jobs in December.
Proterra was founded in 2004 and makes hybrid- and battery-powered buses for mass transit.
“This is another example of South Carolina leading in the green economy,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “The bus that Proterra is going to build in Greenville will not only be good for the environment, but it will help this nation break our dependency on foreign oil.”
The Greenville News first reported Monday that South Carolina had won the plant.
