Pride Group buying 100 trucks from Lion Electric

Pride Group Enterprises (Pride) is buying 100 all-electric Lion6 and Lion8 trucks from Lion Electric. The order represents Lion’s largest single order of zero-emission trucks to date.

Pride will be integrating the all-electric trucks into its existing logistics, full maintenance, leasing, rental and equipment retail operations throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as deploying them with some of its fleet management customers.

The Lion6 and Lion8 trucks have ranges of 290 and 265 kilometres respectively, and will be used for regional shipping operations.

The majority of the trucks are expected to be delivered to Pride during 2021, with the remainder of deliveries expected to take place in 2022.

“This order from Pride serves as not only a significant step in Lion’s growth, but also as a milestone in the adoption and deployment of heavy-duty electric vehicles – further proof that zero-emission freight is here, now,” said Marc Bedard, CEO and Founder of Lion.

“We hope this initial deployment of all-electric trucks marks the beginning of a larger ongoing partnership with Pride, and we will be working with their team to ensure that infrastructure and electric vehicle fleet management capabilities are built in tandem to optimize their electric operations.”

In addition to supplying the vehicles, Lion will also work to support Pride in key aspects of fleet electrification, including the installation of adequate charging infrastructure as well as integrating advanced telematics services into its operations – data which is critical to maximizing return on investment (ROI) in electric fleets.

“Partnering with Lion on our zero-emission heavy-duty trucking efforts gives Pride the unique advantage of deploying these vehicles on the road in the very short term, and significantly contributes to our goal of 100 percent electric vehicles, while gaining valuable experience in zero-emission operations,” said Pride Group Enterprises CEO, Sam Johal.

“The ability to offer truly zero-emission freight to our customers is a huge step for our business and environment. Along with the support from one of our long-tern financial partners Hitachi Capital, we are excited about partnering with a Canadian EV OEM and promoting the Canadian brand, in the North American market.”

Pride group also ordered 150 Tesla Electric Semis, with an option to increase the order to 500 trucks.

All of Lion’s vehicles are purpose-built for electric propulsion from the ground up, and are manufactured at Lion’s North American facility in Quebec, which has a current capacity to produce approximately 2,500 electric trucks per year.

Over the last decade, Lion has delivered over 300 all-electric heavy-duty vehicles in North America with almost 10 million km driven since 2016.

It has received orders recently from Amazon, CN, and the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ).