SAINT-JEROME, QC—The Lion Electric Co. plans to build a factory in Joliet, IL, that will mass-produce electric school buses. When production ramps up in the second half of 2022, the 900,000-square-foot plant will be capable of assembling 20,000 vehicles annually.

“The new facility will represent the largest dedicated production site for zero-emission medium and heavy-duty vehicles in the U.S. and [our] biggest footprint in the market,” says Marc Bedard, CEO of Lion. “[The goal of the factory is to enable us] to meet the increasing demand in the marketplace for ‘Made in America’ zero-emission vehicles, while simultaneously bringing production closer to [our] customers.

“This additional production capacity will aid [us] in scaling electric bus production as the U.S. market moves to electrify a large portion of its school bus fleet,” adds Bedard.

Lion Electric manufactures Class 5 to Class 8 commercial urban trucks, in addition to buses and minibuses for the school, paratransit and mass transit segments. It designs, builds and assembles all its EV components in-house, including chassis, battery packs, truck cabins and bus bodies.