U.S. Transportation Secretary visits the Upstate, hails CU-ICAR partnership

GREENVILLE, SC – January 27, 2011 – Two days after President Obama’s call for “American innovation” during his State of the Union address, a member of his cabinet visited the Upstate Thursday and hailed relationships like those between the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research, or CU-ICAR, and it’s industry partners.

Photo to right: Bob Geolas, executive director of the Clemson University InternationalCenter for Automotive Research, right, and Imtiaz Haque, executivedirector of the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center,center, show U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood the CU-ICAR masterplan. image by: Craig Mahaffey

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited CU-ICAR partner Proterra Inc. and toured the electric bus maker’s temporary assembly plant.

LaHood was joined by Federal Transit Authority Administrator Peter Rogoff, Proterra Chief Executive Jeff Granato, CU-ICAR executive director Bob Geolas, and other officials.

Proterra, which began in 2004 as a small start up in Golden, Colo., is building the world’s first fast-charge electric transit buses at its plant here.

LaHood said companies like Proterra are the “touchstone” of what the President said in his address — innovation, education and infrastructure investment.

Proterra’s collaboration with some of Clemson’s “brightest minds” will drive technology and help create jobs, LaHood said.

“You are an American success story,” he told the assembled work force.

The company collaborates with Clemson faculty to research new technologies, and to train future transportation scientists and engineers.

LaHood, who met with about a dozen students from CU-ICAR’s Carroll A. Campbell Graduate Engineering Center, said they represent the nation’s future research and development potential.

“I suspect they are some of the smartest people in America,” he said.

Proterra announced in February last year its plans to move to CU-ICAR. Greenville was selected after a nationwide search involving some 30 states, with CU-ICAR key to the company’s decision.

Proterra and its partners design, develop and assemble all-electric and battery-dominant hybrid drive solutions and complete vehicles for commercial applications, including transit, school and commercial buses.

The company leases 25 acres in CU-ICAR’s Technology Neighborhood Three where it is initially building a 240,000-square-foot facility. The company anticipates it will invest $68 million and create 1,300 new jobs over the next seven years in Greenville County.

CU-ICAR’s corporate relationship with Proterra is one of Clemson’s hugely successful public-private economic development partnerships. The S.C. Department of Commerce ranks Proterra its top economic development achievement of 2010.

In less than a decade, the 250-acre CU-ICAR research campus off Interstate 85 has generated more than $215 million in funding commitments and created more than 500 jobs.

The heart of the campus is the 90,000-square-foot graduate engineering center, which houses the nation’s first automotive engineering Ph.D. program.

Led by four endowed chairs, the center houses world-class multi-million dollar design and testing facilities and equipment. In 2009, CU-ICAR was named the top emerging technologies research campus in North America by the Association of University Research Parks.

Executive director Bob Geolas said Proterra represents the ideal partnership. Like CU-ICAR’s other partners, Proterra is committed to driving innovation, building new markets and creating jobs.

“At CU-ICAR we invested in leading edge infrastructure and equipment,” Geolas said. “Today, those investments are paying off.”

Leading automotive conferences coming this year to CU-ICAR

• April 5 and 6, CU-ICAR will host the International Conference on Sustainable Automotive Technologies, an event that is expected to attract about 150 representatives from the auto industry, university and non-governmental representatives. The conference is hosted with the University of Applied Sciences in Ingolstadt, Germany, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology from Australia. It will mark the first time the conference has taken place in North America.
• Sept. 26 and 27, CU-ICAR hosts the 2nd Annual Transatlantic Summit. The event is co-sponsored with the Automotive Intelligence Center of Bilboa, Spain, and is expected to draw about 100 attendees. The conference is designed for automakers, suppliers, universities, research centers and government officials interested in new business models. CU-ICAR participated in the first transatlantic conference in Spain last year.