Proterra Electric Bus Drives Over 1,100 Miles on Single Charge

World Records Broken!

The Proterra electric bus has just smashed the world record for the longest distance travelled by an electric vehicle on a single charge. While Elon Musk recovered from this shock, the initiative has been undertaken to hopefully encourage cities to switch from traditional diesel bus services to electric.

Admittedly, when talking about electric vehicles, a bus isn’t very sexy. If you want sexy, check out this fully electric E-Type Jaguar.

The UK, when compared to the US, has embraced electric busses significantly more. A significant majority of Park and Rides in the UK are entirely run off fully electric, or at the very least, hybrid services. Diesel emissions, particularly the highly toxic nitrous oxide they produce are a concern. This is particularly so for large cities and the reduced air quality.

Electric cars are certainly a growing industry. If one ignores Tesla, which isn’t easy, many of the market leaders are endorsing electric cars. In a recent report, Mercedes have committed to all of their vehicles being electric by just 2022.

Surely though the Proterra bus that can do 1,100 miles must take an age to charge?

It is, generally speaking, the major flaw with electric cars. Firstly, they take ages to recharge. Secondly, the range isn’t great and thirdly we have enough trouble generating enough electricity as it is.

While improvements have been made in the last 20 years, those hurdles have still yet to be fully cleared.

Well, in a report via NextPowerUp, the Proterra bus kinda smashes the first two problems there. With 660kwh of storage, the Proterra reportedly only needs 1 hour to charge. This is based on their own fast charging system. In regards to the range, I can’t think of a single fossil-fuel car that could manage 1,100 miles. Not without being designed for that specific purpose at least.

We are of course left with the fundamental issue of the actual supply of electricity. We simply don’t have enough of it and lord knows people aren’t keen on nuclear plants.

That being said, 1,100 miles for an electric vehicle is highly impressive. What do you think? Are electric cars the way forward or do we need to solve the energy problem first? Let us know in the comments.