Lion Electric, the Quebec-based manufacturer best known for its electric school buses, is now under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Former employees have met with investigators from the RCMP’s Integrated Market Enforcement Team, which is reportedly looking into truck orders publicly announced by the company between 2020 and 2022.
During that period, Lion Electric claimed it had secured major deals with clients such as Amazon, Canadian National Railway (CN), Agropur, and Molson Coors—yet many of these orders were never fulfilled.
Beyond the undelivered trucks, the RCMP is also examining an alleged scheme revealed by investigative reporting. According to media sources, Lion Electric took back defective trucks from customers and replaced them with new ones, while applying for a second round of government subsidies for the replacement vehicles. This practice, if confirmed, would constitute double-dipping into public funds—prohibited under government rules. The total amount of subsidies involved per truck is estimated at around $240,000.
Despite ambitious projections, Lion’s truck sales fell dramatically short of expectations. While the company once aimed to sell 15,800 units in 2024, it delivered only 36 trucks between 2021 and 2024. Several units were returned by clients such as the SAQ and Hydro-Québec due to technical or performance issues. Even Amazon, which had a purchase option for up to 2,500 trucks, has remained silent on the matter.
The commercial failure was followed by financial collapse. In 2024, Lion Electric filed for insolvency, despite having received close to $200 million in public funding from the Quebec government, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ. In May 2025, the company was sold for just $6 million to a group of investors, who have since announced a refocus on electric school buses. The remaining trucks were sold at auction for a fraction of their original value.
The Lion Electric case raises serious concerns about oversight of public investments and transparency in corporate reporting. A class-action lawsuit has been filed, alleging that the company misled investors about its financial health and production capacity. If the allegations prove true, the fallout could undermine public trust in Quebec’s electric vehicle industry—an industry seen as vital to the province’s energy transition strategy.
