The Lion Electric Company is reducing its workforce, combined with other cost-cutting measures, aimed at further reducing its operating expenses and aligning its cost structure to current market dynamics, the company said. The workforce reduction affects approximately 120 employees, mostly those based in Canada in overhead and product development functions. The company said this measure should not negatively impact production capacity. Following this workforce reduction, Lion will have approximately 1,150 employees, including more than 600 manufacturing positions.

In addition to the workforce reduction, Lion said it continues to undertake internal measures to reduce its cost structure, including in areas such as third-party inventory logistics, lease expenses, consulting, product development and professional fees.

The workforce reduction and cost-cutting measures announced recently, combined with the measures announced in November 2023 and February, are expected to result in annualized cost savings of approximately $40 million, Lion Electric said.

“Current market dynamics, notably delays experienced with Canada’s Zero-Emission Transit Fund, continue to adversely impact our school bus deliveries and forced us to further reduce our workforce,” Marc Bedard, CEO-Founder of Lion said. “We sincerely regret the impact of this decision on our valued employees. It is however crucial to rightsize our workforce to the current environment. We remain confident in our long-term growth and that of our industry and, keeping our focus on our profitability objectives and our production requirements, we will continue to work tirelessly on the execution of our business plan.”