MONTREAL — The Lion Electric Co. unveiled the eLionM, its new electric midi-minibus, on Wednesday at a summit here, and announced plans for an electric Type A school bus.

The eLionM, a low-floor vehicle, is built to meet paratransit/transit/urban requirements, and is capable of traveling 150 miles (240 kilometers) on a single charge, according to Lion Electric Co.

Lion introduced the new bus at Movin’ On by Michelin, an annual international summit on sustainable mobility.

“The launch of this new vehicle represents a major achievement for Lion, our society and our environment,” said Marc Bedard, founder and CEO at Lion. “The eLionM will serve so many purposes that we already nicknamed it our ‘Swiss Army Knife.’ This 160 kWh vehicle is one of a kind and is not a retrofit; it’s a custom-built, zero-emission, and energy-efficient solution specifically built with transportation operators and agencies in mind.”

“We already started taking pre-orders and are excited to continue to demonstrate our commitment to cleaner air, a healthy population, and a greener planet with this new vehicle,” said Peter Rego, Lion’s chief commercial officer USA.

Lion has spent the last eight years designing and developing all-electric vehicles. The company, which manufactures its own electric bus chassis, battery packs, and bodies, has spent the last three years commercializing the eLion, its electric Type C school bus, and has deployed more than 150 of them, according to Lion Electric Co. That includes a recent delivery of 13 electric school buses to Ontario operators as part of a pilot for the province’s government. 

In addition to distributing the eLion and eLionM, Lion will also introduce the eLionA this summer, an electric Type A school bus.  

Lion will also start manufacturing a new line of all-electric trucks in 2019, leveraging the technologies developed over the last eight years. The specialty medium to heavy-duty urban trucks (classes 5 to 8) will include ambulances, service trucks, cranes, and delivery trucks.