SAQ looking for alternatives to electrify its trucks after Lion Electric woes

The SAQ outlet on St. Laurent Blvd. at Ave. des Pins. (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News)

After its contract with Lion Electric failed to deliver the expected results, the Quebec alcohol board (Société des alcools du Québec - SAQ) has not found an alternative solution for electrifying its trucks.

“We had to admit that our ambitions for electric trucking were not ultimately met,” said SAQ president and CEO Jacques Farcy in a recent interview.

The Crown corporation was the first buyer of Lion Electric’s Class 8 electric truck when the manufacturer unveiled it with great fanfare in 2019, before Farcy took office.

However, the Quebec-made heavy-duty vehicle did not meet the SAQ’s expectations. The company returned it to the manufacturer twice, in 2023 and 2024.

After filing for creditor protection earlier this year, Lion Electric decided to abandon the electric truck market to focus on school buses.

Lion’s setbacks are not the only reason forcing the SAQ to rethink its transport electrification ambitions.

“Lion was one aspect, but there were others,” said Farcy. “We thought the electric truck industry would develop a little faster. We can see that this is not the case.”

With the current offering, electric trucks are not suited to the SAQ’s needs, which involve transporting heavy loads.

“Our products are very heavy (and are moved) throughout Quebec,” the executive explained.

Canadian National Railway (CN) also placed its bets on Lion Electric. In 2020, the rail carrier announced an order for 50 electric trucks worth $20 million, Lion’s largest order at the time.

CN declined to comment on whether the carrier had found an alternative solution to electrify its fleet.

Cost and range constraints

The supply of electric trucks for heavy transport, as desired by the SAQ, is not abundant, acknowledged Propulsion Québec president and CEO Michelle LLambías Meunier.

“There are manufacturers such as Volvo and Freightliner that offer heavy-duty electric trucks in Quebec,” she said. “So, we could say that the wheels are in motion, but it’s true that the offering is not very extensive.”

Electric truck transport can be profitable in certain contexts, according to a report by the Innovative Vehicle Institute published in 2024 and based on tests carried out by companies.

Electric trucks are an attractive option for lighter loads and shorter distances (200 km per day), according to the institute’s findings.

For the vast majority of transporters, electric trucks simply do not meet their needs, said Marc Cadieux, president and CEO of the Quebec Trucking Association (ACQ), in an interview.

“Right now, I can tell you that there is no enthusiasm, none whatsoever,” he said.

The shift to electric vehicles would simply not be profitable for most members of the industry.

“Let’s be honest: it’s still a piece of equipment that costs two and a half times the price of a conventional truck,” Cadieux pointed out. “It’s close to $500,000 to $600,000.”

The Legault government has put the brakes on electrification in Quebec by suspending the Écocamionnage program last September because all the funds had been allocated, Cadieux lamented a few days before the announcement of the program’s renewal.

In its 2030 Green Economy Plan, unveiled on Thursday, the Legault government confirmed that it would allocate $415 million over five years to the program, which subsidizes part of the cost of purchasing an electric truck.

A budget of $35 million is planned for this year.

The purchase of an electric truck brings other constraints for a company, Cadieux explained.

“It’s a different beast to manage,” he said. “It’s not the same mechanic. It’s not the same person in logistics, because you have to take into account the weight calculation, the time it will move (battery range). All of that takes human time. It’s management costs.”

For now, natural gas is probably the best option for reducing the carbon footprint of truck transport, according to Yves Maurais, Director of Technical and Operational Affairs at the ACQ, in the same interview.

“It’s probably the fuel that has the least operational impact compared to diesel and will offer a certain degree of greenhouse gas reduction,” he said.

“There is talk of hydrogen, but hydrogen is not an option in the short to medium term. We are talking about a window of at least four to five years before we see trucks running operationally,” said Maurais.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 20, 2025.