Lion Electric hosts federal and state officials at Illinois plant
by CM Staff
Lion says it is prepared to begin manufacturing 100 per cent electric vehicles in Joliet where its new facility has a production capacity of up to 20,000 vehicles per year.
Lauren Underwood at a press conference for Lion Electric, Illinois.
JOLIET — The Lion Electric Company hosted congressional representatives Bill Foster, Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood, alongside state and federal officials on Mar. 21 at its upcoming Joliet, Ill. manufacturing facility.
The event followed the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act intended to support clean manufacturing in the United States according to Lion Electric.
In addition to representatives Casten, Foster and Underwood, Illinois department of commerce and economic opportunity Director, Sylvia Garcia, and EPA region 5 administrator, Debra Shore gave talks on the economic and health benefits of electrification, as well as state and federal policies designed to bolster EV adoption.
Lion Electric explained in their statement that the IIJA sets aside $5 billion in funding for the adoption of clean school buses to be administered by the EPA, along with $7.5 billion to build out critical charging infrastructure throughout the country to speed the transportation sector’s transition to electrification.
Others groups who attended included school districts from several states and student transportation advocacy groups such as the National School Transportation Association, which represents private school transportation contractors that amount to approximately one-third of the school buses operating in the United States. Large national commercial fleets also attended to test vehicles from Lion’s trucking portfolio.
Lion says it is prepared to begin manufacturing 100 per cent electric vehicles in Joliet in the second half of 2022. Also, the new facility has a production capacity of up to 20,000 vehicles per year. Lion says it anticipates that it will add over 1,400 new jobs to the Joliet region over the next four years.
