The Lion Electric Co. says it has received a conditional order for 1,000 electric school buses from Student Transportation of Canada, whose parent company is controlled by Quebec’s pension fund manager.
The order, whose value hasn’t been specified, is conditional on receiving “satisfactory” non-repayable grants from Infrastructure Canada’s Zero Emission Public Transit Fund.
Ottawa has announced plans to provide $2.75 billion over the next five years to support the electrification of public transit and school transportation.
Deliveries would begin in 2022 and continue until the first half of 2026.
The electric buses would replace diesel vehicles within STC’s fleet of more than 16,000 vehicles and allow it to become North America’s largest zero-emission school bus operator.
Quebec-based Lion says the 1,000 electric buses would eliminate up to 23,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year and help the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to meet the decarbonization goals for its portfolio.