Proterra, an electric vehicle company touted by the Biden administration, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The electric vehicle and storage company, which has been featured by President Joe Biden on multiple occasions, filed for bankruptcy after the New York Stock Exchange closed on Monday night, according to Reuters. It valued its assets and liabilities at somewhere between $500 million to $1 billion, down from $1.6 billion in January 2021.
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The company's stock plummeted to nearly a third of its value within an hour of the quiet declaration, and by closing on Tuesday it was roughly one-seventh of its Monday closing value. The electric vehicle company, which produces electric buses for transit fleets, has been highlighted by the Biden administration a few times, and the company's CEO, Gareth Joyce, was also appointed to a top White House advisory council by the president earlier this year.
Biden also participated in a virtual tour of a Proterra manufacturing facility in South Carolina in 2021, where he revealed that he used to be a bus driver.
"I want you all to know I used to be a bus driver," he said at the end of the event. "You think I'm kidding; I'm not. I worked my way through law school driving a school bus."
In a statement obtained by Fox News, Joyce blamed "various market and macroeconomic headwinds" for the company's situation.
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"The foundation we have built has set the stage for decarbonization across the commercial vehicle industry as a whole, and we recognize the great potential in all of our product offerings to enable this important transformation," he said. "This is why we are taking action to separate each product line through the Chapter 11 reorganization process to maximize their independent potential."
"While our best-in-class EV and battery technologies have set an industry standard, we have faced various market and macroeconomic headwinds, that have impacted our ability to efficiently scale all of our opportunities simultaneously," he added. "As commercial vehicles accelerate toward electrification, we look forward to sharpening our focus as a leading EV battery technology supplier for the benefit of our many stakeholders."