“This is the largest order in Lion’s history to date.” It was in these words that the CEO of Lion Électrique, Marc Bédard, announced the sale of 50 trucks to Canadian National (CN), which ultimately has none in its vehicle fleet, four years later.
“Currently, CN has not received any Lion8 T trucks, but it […] Several months ago, we adjusted the number of vehicles in our order to four,” indicates Journal Michelle Hannan, CN spokesperson.
“Call-up orders will be subject to performance,” she adds.
At a press conference in 2020, the man who was then Justin Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant, Pablo Rodriguez, spoke of a “very important partnership which will create jobs for people here”.
The truck presented in August 2020.
Francis Halin’s photo
These vehicles were to run in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution, according to CN CEO at the time, Jean-Jacques Ruest.
No truck at the SAQ
In March 2019, Marc Bédard broke through a cloud of dry ice and appeared in an electric truck with the SAQ logo to thunderous applause, in front of three ministers and the media.
Five years later, there is no Lion truck in the SAQ fleet since it did not keep the only one it had ordered.
“We returned our truck to Lion until a model could meet our needs. The main issue is the level of load capacity, which is not suitable for transporting our bottles,” specifies Linda Bouchard, spokesperson for the SAQ.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was a Lion ambassador during the launch of the truck. We see him here with Marc Bédard, the founder of Lion.
PHOTO FRANCIS HALIN, ARCHIVES DU JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL
Missing customers
Agropur and Molson Coors, which Lion presented as customers in an investor presentation in December 2020, indicate that they have not ordered vehicles from the company.
Excerpt from a Lion document.
Amazon, which ordered 10 Lion trucks in 2020, did not respond to questions from Journal. A few of them entered service in the United States the following year, according to a New Jersey dealer.
For its part, Hydro-Québec received three bucket trucks in recent months, three years later than expected. The state-owned company also has two Lion6 trucks in its fleet that it uses to transport equipment.
“One of the bucket trucks was recently sent to the Lion service center for technical adjustments,” explains Louis-Olivier Batty, Hydro spokesperson.
Note that hundreds of Lion vehicles are on the roads of North America, including many school buses and delivery trucks used by Ikea.
Earlier this year, CAA-Quebec put a Lion electric tow truck into service.
“Lion has always made the necessary efforts and investments to offer the best products on the road that meet the needs of its customers, and we continue to do so,” concludes Patrick Gervais, spokesperson for Lion.
A well-connected company
- Guy LeBlanc, former CEO of Investissement Québec, was a shareholder of Lion until 2019. He was already a director of the company.
- Michel Ringuet, principal administrator of Lion, is the former agent of the blind trust of the former Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon.
- Pierre Larochelle, chairman of the board of directors of Lion, is the former CEO of Énergie Power, a subsidiary of Power Corporation.
Public aid to Lion Électrique
Ministry of Economy
- March 2020: $5 million (debenture)
- July 2021: $50 million (loan)
- July 2023: $46.3 million (debenture)
- July 2024: $7.5M (loan)
Innovation Canada
- July 2021: $50 million (loan)
Investment Quebec
- 2021-2021: 18,9 M$ (actions)
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
- November 2022: $15M (credit facility)
FTQ Solidarity Fund
- July 2023: $25 million (loan)
Fondaction
- July 2023: $7.5M (loan)
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