The road remains rough for Canadian EV maker Lion Electric. As recently as early 2024, the company was riding high, working through orders for thousands of electric buses and electric trucks, building its own batteries and piloting V2G applications. Later that year, it was forced to file for bankruptcy.
In May 2025, the company was acquired by a group of Quebec investors, who renamed the company LION and announced that it would drop electric trucks and focus entirely on electric school buses.
Was the lack of an ALL CAPS name the root of the company’s financial troubles? Well, maybe, but a highly-publicized (of course) September bus fire in Montreal was probably a contributing factor. As it turns out, the fire, which caused no injuries, has since been traced to faulty HVAC fuses, a defect that also affected the company’s diesel buses.
Be that as it may, several buyers have reported problems with their Lion Electric buses that necessitated costly repairs, and some US school districts have pulled them from service.
Now LION has announced that all of the 1,200 Lion Electric LionC school buses operating in Quebec are back in service. However, the company also says it will not honor warranties on any of the buses sold outside of Quebec, leaving US school districts in a bind.
The US schools purchased the buses with funding from the EPA’s now-defunct Clean School Bus Program.
Clean Trucking contacted the US DOJ, EPA and NHTSA regarding the situation. All three agencies appear still to be functioning, and responded to CT, but none has announced a formal investigation into Lion Electric.
The DOJ told Clean Trucking that it can “neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
The EPA said it “understands Lion Electric’s bankruptcy has put school districts who chose that company as a vendor in a difficult position,” and added that it is “actively monitoring the bankruptcy proceedings and evaluating all options to support impacted school districts.”
NHTSA is “aware of the issues that school districts have had with Lion Electric buses and is evaluating the situation. NHTSA encourages school districts to call the Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236 or file a complaint online regarding any safety concerns.”
Source: Clean Trucking
