By Scott Miller
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GREENVILLE -- Colorado-based Proterra LLC is expected to announce plans on Thursday to locate an electric-bus assembly plant and R&D facility in Greenville that could employ 1,300 people.

In addition to its buses, Proterra develops energy-storage technologies. The company was founded in 2004.

A “major economic development announcement” is scheduled for Thursday at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research. Officials with the S.C. Department of Commerce, Greenville County and city of Greenville will attend, according to an invitation to the event.

Proterra could not be reached for comment.

Greenville was in competition with Indiana and Ohio for Proterra’s business.

Greenville County Council already signed off on an incentive package for “Project Magic Carpet” that includes a fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement and more than $15 million in county- and state-issued bonds that were authorized under the federal Stimulus Act.

According to that agreement, the company was to make an investment of $68 million and hire 1,300 people in the next five years.

Published Feb. 3, 2010