Lion Electric opened its sprawling 900,000-square-foot plant near Joliet in 2023, touting the potential for 1,400 new jobs.
The Quebec-based electric school bus maker found eager customers in Illinois school districts, which wanted to take advantage of generous federal grants, reduce pollution and give kids a cleaner, quieter ride to school.
But the bad news about Lion, which has been building for months, got worse Monday, with a court-appointed monitor saying there is a “very high” likelihood that the company will be liquidated, according to the Globe and Mail and other outlets.
“It’s a bit of a sad story, because it’s the right company with an interesting product,” said Yan Cimon, a professor of business strategy at the Université Laval in Québec City. He said Lion followed an ambitious path — including a bold expansion into the United States — and ultimately the company’s sales didn’t keep up.
“Had Lion been a bit more conservative, maybe they wouldn’t be where they are,” he said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a strong proponent of clean energy, attended the opening of Lion’s now-shuttered Illinois plant in 2023, along with both Illinois senators.
“Illinois has made tremendous strides turning the state into a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles,” the governor’s press secretary, Alex Gough, said Monday in a written statement.
“Governor Pritzker remains committed to maintaining an ecosystem where EV companies and their employees are able to thrive,” the statement said. “Just this morning, (electric vehicle-maker) Rivian made a major commitment to their growth in Illinois by bringing a supplier park to Normal.”
Rivian is constructing a new 1.2 million-square-foot supplier park in Normal, according to a news release from the company. As part of that, Rivian will invest nearly $120 million, which will enable the company to develop the supplier park and create nearly 100 new direct jobs.
Lion announced in December that it was suspending operations at its Illinois plant and temporarily laying off approximately 400 workers in Canada and the United States.
Then last week the company suffered another major setback when Quebec announced it would not invest $24 million in an effort to relaunch the company, according to the Globe and Mail.
“It does not bode well for Lion,” Cimon said. “It may be worth more if it’s dismembered and its assets are sold individually than if the company is kept whole.”
Workingman Capital, a company that helps sell or liquidate manufacturing assets, is listing an equipment auction at its website for a “Lion-Electric Chicago Facility,” at the address of Lion’s Illinois plant.
Susan Mudd, a senior policy advocate at the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said Lion’s apparent failure is very unfortunate, but she sees it as a small step back rather than a reflection of broader trends.
“It doesn’t mean that electric school buses themselves are the problem. A particular company expanded in too many ways, too fast,” she said.
She pointed to new players in the electric school bus business, such as GreenPower in West Virginia, and she noted that big legacy school bus companies such as Bluebird, which sell both electric and diesel buses, have a “huge advantage” over newer, electric-only companies like Lion.
Electric buses are still “where the future is going,” Cimon said.
“The long-term trends are there,” he said. “The whole world is moving toward electric. You see it in China. You see it in Europe. Europeans are really interested in electric. There are other North American companies that look toward electric. So in that sense, it will come.”
nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com
