Lion to Add Electric Bus Manufacturing Facility in California

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Quebec-based Lion Bus plans to add a new electric bus manufacturing facility in California, with support from the state and the Canadian province.

Lion Bus President Marc Bedard and Tyson Eckerle, the deputy director for California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), made the announcement at a demonstration of the eLion electric bus held in Palo Alto on Tuesday. Two Sacramento area school districts will be the first in the state to add Lion's electric vehicles to their fleets, according to NBC Bay Area. Twin Rivers Unified School District and Elk Grove Unified School District are expected to receive a total of 29 buses in the coming months.

The state will help Lion find a location for the new facility as they ramp up production.

The eLion, a Type C electric school bus manufactured in Quebec, uses a technology developed and funded in part by proceeds from the Quebec cap-and-trade program, which is linked with California’s cap-and-trade program.  

“Transportation electrification is among the promising solutions for fighting climate change and modernizing Quebec’s economy,” said David Heurtel, the Quebec minister of sustainable development, environment, and the fight against climate change. “This is why our government is proud to allocate income from the carbon market, through Quebec’s Green Fund, to support innovative companies like Lion Bus that allow us to take yet another step toward a modern, sustainable, and low-carbon economy for our own well-being and the well-being of our children.” 
 
“GO-Biz is proud to partner with Lion Bus to help bring a new electric bus manufacturing facility to California and help meet Gov. Brown’s goal of putting 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025,” Eckerle said.

Since the launch of their cap-and-trade programs in 2013, Quebec and California have provided more than $5.5 billion for initiatives and technologies financed through Quebec’s Green Fund and California’s Greenhouse Gas Fund. Many of the investments target innovations in transportation, since this sector is the largest single contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in both California and Quebec, according to GO-Biz and the Quebec Green Fund.

Zero-emission buses also benefit from incentive purchase funding from Quebec's and California’s cap-and-trade programs, which aim to help bring technologies like the eLion to communities most in need of pollution relief. The state and province have linked their respective cap-and-trade programs to create a carbon market that is designed, developed, and operated by sub-national governments from different countries. With the province of Ontario expected to join in 2018, the market will soon represent a population of 62 million and a gross domestic product of more than $3.7 trillion.