Mirabel, Que.’s The Lion Electric Company, a manufacturer of all-electric medium and heavy-duty vehicles, officially inaugurated its new manufacturing factory that will produce lithium-ion batteries for medium and heavy-duty vehicles in Mirabel.
The first of its kind in Canada, this recently built 175,000 square feet facility located at the YMX International Aerocity of Mirabel, Quebec will power electric vehicles assembled by Lion at its Saint-Jérôme, Quebec and Joliet, IL manufacturing plants.
In the presence of Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy and Benoit Charrette, Minister of the Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, this major event brought together various Lion stakeholders, including customers, employees, partners and members of the electrification of transportation ecosystem in North America.
“This official opening celebrates the culmination of several years of efforts that now allow us to control the manufacturing and integration of one of the fundamental components in the production of electric vehicles and the electrification of transportation – namely the battery. With this new facility, Lion will be able to strengthen its leadership role in the electrification of the transportation ecosystem in Canada and the United States. We look forward to continuing our innovation efforts,” said Marc Bédard, CEO-Founder, Lion Electric.
Following the completion of the installation of the initial portion of the battery assembly line in Mirabel, production of the first battery pack was completed at the end of 2022. Final certification of the first battery pack model is expected in the first half of 2023, followed by a gradual production ramp-up in 2023. The first Lion batteries will serve to power the LionC and LionD school buses and the Lion5 trucks.
The new facility is targeted to reach a production capacity of 1.7 gigawatt hour by the end of the year. At full scale, it should have an annual production capacity of 5 gigawatt hours. This would enable Lion to electrify approximately 14,000 medium and heavy-duty vehicles per year, depending on the vehicle mix.
To date, Lion has delivered more than 950 all-electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in North America, that have collectively driven more than 10 million miles (16 million kilometers). All of Lion’s vehicles are purpose-built for electric propulsion and are manufactured at Lion’s North American facilities. Once the Quebec and Illinois factories are at full capacity, Lion expects to be able to manufacture 22,500 electric buses and trucks per year. By vertically integrating components of the battery system, the Company, which has approximately 1,400 employees, intends to strengthen its leadership position in the North American transportation industry.
