On Thursday, Colorado-based Proterra Inc., a manufacturer of drive and energy storage systems for buses and trucks, announced that it will locate its new manufacturing and innovation center in Greenville, S.C., where the company will hire more than 1,000 employees to design and manufacture its line of clean transportation solutions.

Proterra’s plant will be located within the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) campus, enabling Proterra to form a close partnership with CU-ICAR to accelerate technology innovation and commercialization of its all-electric and battery-dominant hybrid drive solutions.

Proterra’s Greenville manufacturing and research and development center will open in 2011 and be housed in a newly constructed 250,000 square foot building on the CU-ICAR campus. The new facility is in addition to Proterra’s headquarters in Golden, Colo.

The plant will be home to the manufacturing and development initiatives of the company’s clean commercial transportation solutions, which include all-electric and battery-dominant hybrid transit, school and commercial buses, parcel delivery vehicles and other class 4-8 trucks. The company plans to hire more than 1,000 local employees in the next four years.

Proterra’s Greenville facility will begin with a groundbreaking in the spring of 2010, and be operational in 2011. Hiring for the facility will focus on manufacturing, supply chain, product management and operations roles.