Lion Electric staff cuts hit office workers

Lion Electric is cutting 120 positions from its workforce in Canada.

The move, combined with other cost-cutting measures, is aimed at reducing operating expenses and aligning its cost structure to market dynamics, the company said in a statement.

The workforce reduction affects approximately 120 employees, mostly Canada-based employees in overhead and product development functions. The measure should not negatively impact the company’s production capacity, it said.

Following this workforce reduction, Lion will have approximately 1,150 employees, including more than 600 manufacturing positions, in Canada and the United States.

In addition to the workforce reduction, Lion continues to undertake internal measures to reduce its cost structure, including in areas such as third-party inventory logistics, lease expenses, consulting, product development and professional fees.

The workforce reduction and cost cutting measures, combined with the measures announced in November 2023 and February 2024, are expected to result in annualized costs savings of approximately $40 million.

“Current market dynamics, notably delays experienced with the Canada’s Zero-Emission Transit Fund, continue to adversely impact our school bus deliveries and forced us to further reduce our workforce,” said Marc Bedard, CEO-Founder of Lion.

“We sincerely regret the impact of this decision on our valued employees. It is however crucial to rightsize our workforce to the current environment. We remain confident in our long-term growth and that of our industry and, keeping our focus on our profitability objectives and our production requirements, we will continue to work tirelessly on the execution of our business plan”, he added.

Lion Electric manufactures all-electric class 5 to class 8 commercial urban trucks and all-electric school buses.

It opened a 900,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Illinois in July 2023, and a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Mirabel, Quebec, in April the same year. When it opened the battery plant the company said it expected to be able to manufacture 22,500 electric buses and trucks per year.