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Dive Brief:
- The Federal Transit Administration today issued a safety advisory covering approximately 483 battery electric buses produced by Proterra from 2019 to 2022. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a recall of the vehicles on Sept. 5, 2024.
- Proterra Catalyst vehicles manufactured from 2019 to 2021 and Proterra ZX5 buses produced from 2020 to 2022 were involved in several such incidents in which a radiator fan electrical circuit may overheat, potentially causing a fire, according to NHTSA’s safety recall report.
- Phoenix Motorcars, which acquired Proterra’s transit bus division after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023, will issue a free software update to owners of vehicles subject to the voluntary recall. The update will slow the speed of the radiator fan in an effort to reduce the equipment’s temperature.
Dive Insight:
The first report of an issue with the Proterra buses came on July 12, 2021, when a customer’s bus exhibited smoke. A software update was issued on March 2, 2022, but a second smoke incident occurred in Miami on Jan. 15, 2024. An investigation following that event found the software had been overwritten and needed to be redeployed, according to the NHTSA.
Although the specific vehicles related to this recall are no longer manufactured, Phoenix continues to manufacture the ZX5 transit bus. NHTSA records show that five additional recalls for other issues are in effect for the former Proterra ZX5.
NHTSA mailed recall letters to vehicle owners yesterday.
