Proterra (NASDAQ: PTRA) is a commercial electric vehicle OEM, and it has two related businesses: Proterra Energy, which offers turnkey charging services to fleets; and Proterra Powered, which provides battery packs to other vehicle manufacturers.

Now the company has produced the first Proterra Powered EV battery at its new Powered 1 battery manufacturing plant in Greer, South Carolina. Proterra expects to begin deliveries of Proterra Powered battery systems from the new factory in the first quarter of 2023. Powered 1 has also started production of drivetrains and other ancillary systems such as high-voltage junction boxes.

Powered 1 brings battery production closer to Proterra’s customers on the East Coast and in Europe, and to its own electric bus manufacturing operations in Greenville, South Carolina. The  327,000-square-foot battery plant will eventually have “multiple gigawatt-hours of annual production capacity.”

“Achieving this important milestone at Powered 1 a little over a year after announcing our plans for the factory is a reflection on the talent, innovation, and collaboration of our incredible team,” said Proterra CEO Gareth Joyce. “At full scale, we believe Powered 1 will be the largest battery manufacturing facility in the US dedicated exclusively to electric commercial vehicles.”

That’s a laudable ambition, but Proterra might just have some competition for the “largest” title—so many new battery plants are planned for the US Southeast that some are starting to call it the Battery Belt.

Source: Proterra