Lion8 Class 8 with 630 kWh battery and 275-mile range.
Key Milestones
Lion Electric founded by Marc Bedard in Saint-Jerome, Quebec as a school-bus and commercial-truck OEM focused exclusively on battery-electric vehicles — one of the first pure-play HD EV makers in North America
Lion unveils Lion8 Class 8 platform (refuse, dump, tractor variants): 480 kWh pack, 250 mi range, all-aluminum body — Lion's first push beyond school buses into HD trucking
Amazon takes warrants for up to 20% of Lion in conjunction with a 2,500-truck supply commitment; warrant strike $5.66, exercisable in tranches as Amazon takes delivery — anchors Lion's pre-SPAC valuation
Lion Electric goes public on NYSE and TSX (LEV) via Northern Genesis SPAC merger; ~$4B initial valuation, raises ~$485M including $200M PIPE — tied for largest pure-play EV-truck SPAC of the cycle alongside Hyzon
Lion battery-pack factory begins commissioning at Mirabel QC: 5 GWh nameplate to supply Lion truck and bus packs from third-party cells — Canada's first dedicated commercial-vehicle pack plant
Lion announces ~150 layoffs across QC and IL plants; cuts to truck production cadence on weak orders — first sign of cash burn outpacing Amazon-anchored order book conversion
Joliet IL truck factory production paused indefinitely; ~120 additional layoffs — Amazon takes negligible deliveries against 2,500-truck commitment; Lion shifts truck production back to Saint-Jerome QC
Lion Electric files for CCAA creditor protection in Quebec (equivalent to Chapter 11); reorganization sale process begins under court supervision — caps a 90%+ share-price collapse from May 2021 SPAC peak
Vincent Chiara's Mach Group, Power Energy and Quebec province lead $50M acquisition of Lion under court-supervised CCAA sale; relaunch focuses on Quebec school-bus production with reduced HD truck ambition — Lion8 Class 8 platform deprioritized