Lion Electric Company

Autobus Lion (2011–2017) The first school bus manufacturer founded in North America in the 21st century, Autobus Lion/Lion Bus is also the first manufacturer of full-size school buses in Canada since the closure of Les Enterprises Michel Corbeil in 2007. Lion Bus was created in 2008 by former Corbeil executives Marc Bédard and Camile Chartrand (serving as Lion President and retired COO, respectively). In 2011, the company introduced its first bus, the Lion 360°, a cowled-chassis (conventional style) school bus, produced in a partnership with Spartan Chassis, Inc. In contrast to other manufacturers of full-size buses, the 360 was offered by itself, to streamline production costs. La Compagnie Électrique Lion (2017–2024) In June 2017, Lion Bus rebranded itself as the Lion Electric Company. As part of the transition, the company announced the development of a second bus design, a flat-floor fully electric minibus for school and transit applications (later unveiled as the LionM and LionA, respectively). In addition, Lion announced the development of Class 5-8 fully electric trucks, with a planned launch in fall 2018. In the summer of 2018, the company established a base of operations in central California. In 2021, Lion announced a new manufacturing facility in Joliet, Illinois to produce its electric buses and trucks, and became a public company by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In May 2021, Lion received an order from First Student for 260 electric buses, its largest order at that point. The company stated in December 2024 that it was entering creditor protection in Canada and Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the US, as it defaulted on its debt; Lion laid off 920 employees during the year, including a temporary layoff of 400 employees at the Illinois plant. LION (2025–present) As Lion entered creditor protection at the end of 2024, the company announced that all remaining production was focused on producing and delivering outstanding vehicle orders, In February 2025, Lion was introduced to a class-action lawsuit in Canada from its shareholders, claiming it misrepresented the stability of its finances; after 2023, the company stock had collapsed in price, becoming virtually worthless. In the same month in the United States, a law firm began an investigation into Lion in an effort to determine whether the company committed securities fraud, coinciding with an EPA investigation into the catastrophic failure of multiple Lion EV buses placed into service in Maine. Following nearly $180M CDN of investment from Quebec, the province ended financial support of the company at the end of April 2025. In May 2025, the sale of the company was completed for $6M CDN to a group of investors led by a Lion director and a real-estate developer, with the company changing its name to the capitalized LION. The restructure brought a number of changes, as the company sold off its manufacturing facilities in the United States and its battery-pack production facility. ==Products==

}} Lion 360° Launched in 2011, the Lion Bus 360° is a cowled-chassis (conventional) bus sold as either a school bus, MFSAB (activity bus), or a commercial-use bus. As with the Blue Bird Vision, the 360 does not use a chassis and hood of a production medium-duty truck, instead having a proprietary chassis developed for the bus by Spartan Chassis (a subsidiary of Spartan Motors, former parent company of Carpenter). Though few body configurations were initially offered (to streamline production), the 360 was offered with options such as wheelchair lifts or underfloor luggage compartments. In its development, several features of the 360 focused on lengthening the service life of school buses. In the interest of corrosion resistance, the body does not use steel exterior panels, consisting of composite body panels, with the lower bodywork using TPO Thermoplastic olefin panels. In a break from school bus design precedent, the 360 is produced with a 102-inch wide body (rather than 96 inches); the change was intended for either wider center aisles or to better accommodate 3-point seatbelts. In May 2015, Lion unveiled a CNG-fueled variant of the 360, becoming the first manufacturer to produce a Type C school bus powered by a CNG-fueled engine, a NGV Motori version of the International DT466 engine. It is unclear how many were produced. Lion eLion (LionC) Launched in 2015, the eLion is a fully electric vehicle, sharing its body and Spartan chassis with the 360. In place of the Cummins diesel, a 250 KiloWatt TM4 SUMO MD electric motor is used along with LG lithium-ion batteries. the LionM (originally the eLionM The LionA is a Type A school bus, adopting the axle configuration of a much larger Type D bus. with a larger school bus called LionD. The LionM and LionA are equipped with either one or two 80 kWh LG Chem lithium-ion battery packs mounted below the floor, allowing for either a 75-mile or 150-mile driving range. the Lion8 is a Class 8 fully electric truck, produced in a cabover configuration. Developed primarily for urban and vocational use, the Lion8 currently has a range of 250 miles. ==See also==