The Lion Electric Company is expected to start equipping its electric buses and trucks later this year with its own battery packs, assembled at its Mirabel plant, inaugurated on Monday.

For the Quebec company, this site, financed by loans totaling 100 million granted by Ottawa and Quebec, is at the heart of its growth strategy, alongside the American assembly site in Illinois.

In the Laurentians, the first battery unit was assembled at the end of 2022 and product certification is expected by the end of June. Once completed, Lion will be able to install the battery packs on its all-electric buses and trucks.

“This official opening marks the culmination of several years of effort, which now allows us to control the manufacture and integration of one of the fundamental components of the production of electric vehicles”, underlined the president and chief of the management of Lion, Marc Bédard, at a press conference.

The event notably brought together the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, as well as his colleague in the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks. Local elected officials were also present.