By: Mark Glennon*
Lion Electric recently announced that it will not honor warranty claims on thousands of electric school buses sold in the United States.
“Customers’ worst fears were realized” by the announcement, according to a report in School Transportation News. “The impact is immense,” according to that report. “Lion Electric has more than 2,200 electric commercial vehicles on the roads across North America, logging more than 62,000 miles a week with more than 32 million driven miles transporting 130,000 children, then company spokesman Patrick Gervais said earlier this year.” The same publication earlier reported on how Lion’s failure had left U.S. school districts stuck with unsafe, broken buses.
Lion was anointed as a flagship in Illinois’ planned, subsidized ecosystem for electric vehicle (EV) production when a major, new production facility for school buses was announced for Joliet, Illinois in 2021.
But troubles came swiftly as EV demand waned, mechanical and reliability issues arose, debts mounted and subsidies were delayed in Canada, where the company is headquartered. It filed for bankruptcy there in December.
“This is a big deal,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in 2021 when he announced the Joliet plant. “We are building an ecosystem in a particular industry.” Pritzker added that his state eyes the possibility of being the U.S. leader in EV production. Illinois aims to eventually see 1 million EVs produced a year by 2030. The Montreal-based company was to receive $50 million in incentives from the State of Illinois, but the company foundered before required employment targets were met, so state money was never disbursed to the company.
The company’s 900,000 square foot factory in Joliet is shuttered. That was Lion’s only U.S. facility, and U.S customers are left with no apparent means to repair or maintain buses already bought.
The bus purchases were heavily funded by U.S. federal taxpayers. The federal program, as described by School Transportation News, had been designed to provide $5 billion to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and clean school buses. To date, 1,039 awards have been issued to 1,344 school districts and nearly $2.785 billion of the total $5 billion has been awarded, replacing 8,936 buses.
Vice President Kamala Harris was a particularly avid supporter of the federal program. “One of Kamala Harris’s highest profile responsibilities as vice president has been spearheading the federal government’s billion-dollar efforts to deploy thousands of electric buses across hundreds of school districts nationwide,” the Free Beacon wrote. “I’m excited about electric school buses. I love electric school buses. I just love them!” Harris exclaimed with excitement. “For so many reasons. Maybe because I went to school on a school bus. Hey, raise your hand if you went to school on a school bus!”
It’s not immediately clear how many Illinois school districts are among those stuck with Lion buses, but there are some. For example, Herscher CUSD No. 2 district in Herscher, Illinois, has 50 buses, half of which are Lion Electric’s. “We are working with alternate vendors at the expense of the school district to help keep our electric buses functional and on the road,” a spokesman told School Transportation News. “Currently, six of our 25 (Lion) electric buses need some type of repair.”
And the superintendent of schools for the Wethersfield District #230 in Kewanee, Illinois, told STN earlier this year the purchase last fall of three Lion Electric buses was funded by the EPA. “Upon finding out Lion was in financial trouble, he reached out to his service contact, who relayed that he had been laid off.” At least some other Illinois schools that had ordered Lion buses cancelled upon news of Lion’s troubles.
When will politicians learn? How many times must the lesson be taught? Industrial central planning by government doesn’t work. Government is no good at picking winners and losers. Leave that to the private sector and let it bear the losses on bets that don’t pay off.
Apparently, the lesson remains unlearned.
In May, Pritzker announced yet another subsidy for a different Canadian electric bus maker, Damera. Damera’s incentive package reportedly includes $6 million in tax credits, exemptions on utility taxes, credits for training and equipment purchases, and income tax withholding retention for qualifying positions. Pritzker, however, did not provide the total value of the incentive package in his announcement.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Attention all investors in ‘Lion Electric’ busses…
I have a ground level opportunity for you…
Invest in our Electric Helicopter Division, or our super lucrative 100% Solar Electric Submarines…
How much of these subsidies mysteriously found its way into DNC coffers?
This scam ranks right up there with the fake ‘book deals’ that political animals get prepaid for. Virtually no one is reading books, much less buying books any more. Ask Borders Books and Barnes & Noble if their unit sales are anywhere where they were 10 or 20 years ago. These so-called book deals are nothing more than back door bribes.
Wasted money on a wasted “Green” agenda that produced nothing and ended up costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Lion executives walk away with pockets full of cash and taxpayers walk away with lint in their pockets.
If you want to know what companies not to invest in, look no further than the companies the government is giving incentives to.
Why doesn’t this surprise me. I lived in Illinois for most of my 70+ years, the land of corrosion and corruption. Taxpayer money wasted and lost over “pie in the sky” promises, that were doomed for failure. Pritzker is who we need as a president…? you must be kidding. Good grief.
Just another example of poor decision making by Biden and his morons. Tax dollars wasted on climate ideology. At least they want bankrupt before Illinois gave them any cash. Everybody needs to remember that JumboJB fully supported this crappy decision. Now who’s going to bail out those stupid school districts who bought these yellow boat anchors?
I’d love a study on the environmental impact on “emission free buses” that are already being abandoned in year three…
Just think those of you angry at pensions this money could have been applied to them easing the burdens on our property taxes…Just a thought.
I believe it was federal money for the buses, not IL money.
Correct…but does the source matter?
That’s what the story says and it describes the federal program. Please read the stories before commenting.
I did. And my point is correct. I don’t think the original comment, suggesting federal money could fix IL pensions, is a like-for-like comparison. If the buses didn’t get funded, the federal money would not have been paid to IL pensions. As the story states, which presumably YOU read, IL did not actually pay any money to Lion… “so state money was never disbursed to the company”
Yes, I see the point you intended now.
Federal money comes from us taxpayers pockets
Yes, correct. Not my point.
Time to Defund Illinois.
Taxpayers on the hook again thanks to Pritzker and Springfield.
If we used properly the money Pritzker blew on electric vehicle subsidization, fighting Trump, and illegal immigrants, the budget would be a lot closer to balanced.
The green boondoggles for Democrat donors continues – taxpayers on the hook for the DNC grift.
Pritzker is an idiot. Government should not be in the business of subsidizing private businesses. Pay up Illinois! Your Governor has bankrupted you. Thank goodness for the nation’s taxpayers Trump is in office or everyone would be paying for Pritzker’s idiotic decisions.
When spending our money, the government should be frugal, buying only commercially proven products. Gov. JB Pritzker can put his private money in risky investments.
The covid vax is another taxpayer funded boondoggle…
We have Donald Trump and Operation Warp Speed to thank for the effort…
Pritzker pushing wrong agenda at taxpayers expense.
“This is a big deal,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in 2001 when he announced the Joliet plant.
You have a typo; it was 2021.
Thank you. Fixed it.
It only seems he’s been governor for that long.
For many years one school district in Aurora did not provide bussing to any schools. They had one of the top track teams in the state,cause and effect ?
And that reduced emissions! Michael Mann be praised!
Government should be technology neutral. The markets will decide what’s a winner and what’s not. I emailed a link to a story a couple of years ago about Lion Electric buses malfunctioning in a cold weather state which I think was Maine. Never would have seen that one coming.