The president of Canadian electric bus and truck manufacturer Lion Electric Co. resigned as the cash-poor company made a last-ditch attempt to stay afloat.
Nicolas Brunet stepped down from the post he’d held for little more than a year, according to a company filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission dated Dec. 1. The same day, Lion Electric announced it would lay off about 400 of 700 employees and suspend work at a plant in Joliet.
Lion’s lenders, which include National Bank of Canada, gave the company temporary help to get through Dec. 16, suspending for a second time the covenants on a credit line. The maturity on a separate loan was pushed back to the same date. The extensions were granted to buy time for Lion Electric to find new investors or a buyer.
Mach Capital, the investment arm of Canadian real estate developer Groupe Mach Inc., was said to be in discussions last week over a rescue package, but nothing has been reported since.
Brunet was appointed as president in September 2023 with a mandate to work with Chief Executive Officer Marc Bedard on “all strategic aspects of the business, with a focus on accelerating sales across the United States and Canada, and oversee all commercial operations,” according to a news release at the time.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.