You can tell that an electric school bus is coming when you hear a melody being played by the bus. No this is not some rap artist playing his music to gain attention. This is because electric buses do not produce sufficient noise and this could be a safety issue. The music kicks in a low speeds, usually below 35 km/h. But there are more pressing safety issues with electric school buses.
Lion school buses have been grounded after a wiring problem reportedly caused a bus to catch fire in Montreal last week. Lang Bus Lines in London, Ontario own 50 such buses and they will conduct examinations before the buses are let back on the road. But this is not the only problem that has plagued the Lion bus manufacturer.
As reported in our Gorski Consulting article of July 28, 2025, Lion went bankrupt. The following text is taken from our article:
“It was with considerable fanfare that local politicians in London announced that they were helping a local school bus operator to buy new electric buses from Lion Electric Company. In an article posted on June 21, 2024, the local CTV News outlet in London announced that the Canadian federal government was providing Langs Bus Lines in London with “$44.6 million in grants and loans to make the transition”. It was dubbed as a great success story. Yet, only a year later (according to an Electrick.co article of July 26, 2025) Lion was going bankrupt and its liquidator was sending letters to bus owners that the warranties on their buses were now void.
What is puzzling about this news is that a consortium of two firms from Quebec and Ontario bought the bankrupt Lion firm this summer and they are the same persons who owned it previously, this according to the Electrek article. So the new Lion has reformed but is not liable for its commitments to its previous clients even though, essentially, they are the same company? It all seems very confusing.
Locally, the federal funding to Langs Bus Lines in London was supposed to cover the cost of 200 new, electric, Lion buses and the charging infrastructure likely installed on their grounds. Some of those Lion buses were seen operating this past school season without complaints from local drivers. Limited charging meant that they could not be used for long distances outside of the City. With the Lion bankruptcy it is questionable how those buses will operate if they need repairs. And student safety must be maintained above all regardless of the financial difficulties.
It remains questionable why the federal government spent 44.6 million dollars, as reported in June, 2024 when the Lion company became bankrupt sometime before July, 2025, or less than a year after the announcement of the federal money. And the persons who would seemingly benefit from this are the same persons who previously owned Lion. Meanwhile bus operators such as Langs would seem to be left paying for the repairs of the new buses.“
The rest of our article can be viewed on the Gorski Consulting website by searching for the July 28, 2025 posting date.
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