The Lion Electric bankruptcy is the latest proof that former President Biden’s green energy agenda is more about ideology than results. The former administration gave Canadian bus maker Lion Electric $159 million to build 435 school buses between 2022 and 2024. Instead, the company collapsed into bankruptcy, failed to deliver hundreds of buses, and left schools scrambling for costly repairs—or turning back to diesel.
The Biden EPA touted the $5 billion Clean School Bus program as a climate milestone. Yet Lion Electric, once valued at $4.7 billion, was sold off for just $6 million. Its plants closed, employees were fired, and warranties for already-purchased buses evaporated. As Homer Community School District superintendent Mike Leskowich explained, “All of our contacts from Lion that we worked so closely with to ensure the project’s success have been fired.” His district is now forced to buy its own repair parts. “Eventually, however, we will return to diesel, as the cost of the vehicle is far less than electric.”
The problems don’t stop there. Districts from Maine to Ohio report that their electric buses break down, fail in cold weather, and sometimes lose steering and braking. “The buses do not run for more than a month before needing more repairs,” warned Colleen Souza of Winthrop Public Schools.
This debacle is the logical outcome of government picking winners and losers. As Cato Institute’s Travis Fisher put it, “For anyone who thought the transition to EVs would be easy or even profitable, this is yet another example that perhaps there will be large bumps in the road.”
