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Brook Porter, a partner at Kleiner Perkins and founding partner at the venture fund G2VP, tells Business Insider that buses will be the first transportation sector to go all-electric.
- A partner at Kleiner Perkins who cofounded a $350 million spinoff venture fund says buses will be the first transportation sector to go 100% electric.
- An engineer by training, Brook Porter explains that diesel engines don't make sense for vehicles that stop and start often. Batteries do, especially because you can optimize them for a given route.
- Urban landscapes, where buses are most common, also have some of the strictest emissions regulations.
- Porter is betting on it. His venture fund G2VP was one of seven investors involved in a $155 million funding round for the electric bus company Proterra.
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It sounds counterintuitive. Buses are heavy, they travel long distances, and they're not as flashy as electric cars and trucks. How could they possibly lead the electric vehicle revolution?
They already are.
In 2018, at least 10% of new bus purchases in the US were electric, according to the nonprofit CALSTART. That's five times greater than the sales of electric vehicles overall in the same year - and the margin is likely to be even greater for 2019.
"We asked a question eight years ago about what segment of transportation would go all-electric first," said Brook Porter, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, who helped spin off a new venture fund called G2VP in 2016. "It turns out it's going to be electric buses."
Porter is among the many VCs betting on it. In 2018, his $350 million venture fund joined a $155 million investment round for the electric bus company Proterra, according to data from PitchBook.
He gave us four reasons why he thinks it's a safe bet.