The problem
School districts facing emissions rules and fuel costs wanted zero-emission buses, and cities wanted electric trucks — but the legacy bus and truck makers had almost nothing purpose-built and electric to sell them.
How it works
Lion Electric designed and assembled its own electric school buses (the LionC) and medium/heavy-duty trucks at its Saint-Jérôme, Quebec plant, with a second facility in Illinois, selling directly to school districts and fleet operators and backing the vehicles with maintenance and charging support.
Pain points
Diesel fumes around schools, unpredictable diesel and maintenance budgets, and fleet buyers with no electric heavy-duty alternative from incumbents.
Business model
Upfront vehicle sales to districts and fleets, with recurring revenue from parts, servicing contracts, and charging-infrastructure support.
Why it worked (or didn’t)
It worked, then it didn’t. Lion genuinely led its niche — roughly 1,175 of the ~1,600 electric school buses in Quebec carry its badge — and reached a NYSE/TSX listing. But deliveries never funded the burn: after layoffs starting in late 2023 (~920 staff through 2024), Lion defaulted on loans, filed for CCAA creditor protection on December 18, 2024 (plus US Chapter 15) with debts over $411M, and shrank to a skeleton crew. An earlier rescue collapsed when Quebec declined fresh funds; only a revised investor offer, backed by renewed school-bus subsidies, avoided outright liquidation.
Challenges
Cash burn outpaced deliveries; recalled debt removed any runway; founder/board-era equity was wiped out in insolvency; and the rescue only survived by abandoning trucks to focus solely on school buses for the Quebec market.
Funding
- Raised: MISSING (public company; pre-insolvency raises unverifiable from inspected sources).
- Valuation: MISSING.
- Status: closed — sold out of creditor protection; the original listed company failed.
Latest — May 2025
A Quebec Superior Court judge approved the sale of Lion Electric to a Quebec investor group led by Groupe MACH’s Vincent Chiara and board director Pierre Wilkie, five months after the December 2024 filing — relaunching the company (as LION) focused exclusively on electric school buses, with Quebec renewing its e-school-bus subsidy program behind the deal.