Amazon taps Quebec firm to add to electric vehicle fleet

Amazon could use them to transport products between distribution centres

Financial Post Staff Sep 16, 2020   

Amazon.com Inc. is tapping a Quebec-based electric bus and truck manufacturer to provide it with 10 battery-powered delivery vehicles as part of the e-commerce giant’s climate pledge to eliminate CO2 emissions by 2049

Amazon announced in a short tweet on Wednesday that it would be rolling out vehicles produced by The Lion Electric Company. No other details were released and neither Lion Electric nor Amazon replied to multiple requests to comment.

Lion lectric is predominately known for manufacturing electric school buses. It currently lists three online — the LionA, the LionC and the LionD. The company also lists a minibus and a truck, the Lion8, for sale. A company presentation also shows plans for the Lion6, another tractor truck scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2020 and a boom truck and ambulance scheduled for 2021.

The company, which was founded in 2008, has 250 employees.

Lion Electric chief executive officer Marc Bedard told Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil that Amazon’s order was for 10 Lion6 trucks. Each one, he said, is made for heavy duty deliveries of up to 26,000 pounds. Bedard explained that Amazon intends to primarily use them to transport products from one distribution centre to another.

“Our goal is that this is a first order that will be followed by others,” he told Le Soleil.

Bedard said Amazon had been testing Lion Electric’s vehicles for over a year. In January, the Quebec press reported that Amazon executives visited Lion Electric’s facilities. Amazon has been looking to aggressively reduce its emission footprint, and recently purchased 100,000 electric delivery trucks from Michigan-based startup Rivian.

The Amazon news comes on the heels of Lion Electric announcing that it had secured its largest ever order at the end of August. The company will be producing 50 electric trucks for Canadian National Railway for intermodal use between its terminals in urban zones, according to a press release. CN has its own strategy to reduce emissions and said the trucks will allow it to remove 100 tons of greenhouse emissions from the road on an annual basis.