Consortium of Quebec investors to purchase Lion Electric

The rear door of the Lion C electric bus, manufactured in Quebec, is seen in the Lion Electric Company assembly plant in St-Jerome, Que., Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi)

A group of Quebec investors has reached a deal to acquire and relaunch struggling vehicle-maker Lion Electric.

The consortium of investors is led by Pierre Wilkie, a director of the electric-vehicle manufacturer, and Vincent Chiara, president of Montreal real estate developer Groupe MACH.

Lion Electric, which sought protection from its creditors in December, announced the sale Thursday evening and will present the agreement to a Quebec Superior Court judge Friday morning.

The deal comes after the Quebec government refused last month to inject any more public funds into the company, which had been a condition of a previous offer by the group of investors. The court-appointed monitor for the company suggested at the time that Lion Electric, which manufactured electric school buses and trucks, would likely face liquidation after that deal fell through.

But last week, the investors made a new offer after receiving confirmation that Quebec would renew a subsidy program for electric school buses, which had expired in March.

On Thursday, the government released details of the new program, which will now offer subsidies of $240,000 for each purchase of an electric school bus, up from a maximum of $175,000.

That program has been a key to Lion’s success in Quebec, in part because buses must be assembled in Canada to be eligible.

Quebec is aiming to electrify 65 per cent of its school bus fleet by 2030, and the new program will run until 2028.

The provincial government says there are about 1,600 electric school buses in Quebec, out of a total fleet of around 11,500 buses. About 1,175 of the electric buses were manufactured by Lion.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2025.