The logo on a Lion Electric Co. bus owned by Winthrop Public Schools and photographed Dec. 8, 2023. The school district has four Lion Electric buses that have been problematic for a couple of years. Lion Electric is based in Canada. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

Lion Electric Co., the Canadian firm that has supplied problematic electric buses to schools in Maine, is on the brink of bankruptcy, Montreal’s La Presse reported Monday.

The Quebec-based company has supplied at least 17 electric buses through the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection’s Clean School Bus grant to schools in Maine, with four in the Winthrop Public Schools.

A bus from Lion Electric Co., one of four acquired by the Winthrop Public Schools under the federal Clean School Bus Program, is parked near Winthrop Middle School in December 2023. Lion Electric, based in Canada, is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

Lion Electric reportedly had until Nov. 30 to pay a $22 million loan from two Canadian investors, along with another $117 million loan taken out through a bank, but the deadlines have been pushed to Dec. 16.

The company also has a long-term debt of $293 million, the news outlet said, further reporting the public company might leave the stock exchange.

Lion Electric reported Dec. 1 it had laid off 400 employees, nearly half its workforce, and has two weeks to close a deal with investors. Otherwise, Lion Electric might have to seek protection from its creditors under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, or CCAA, similar to bankruptcy in the United States, according to the newspaper.

Lion Electric did not respond Wednesday to a Kennebec Journal reporter’s inquiry on how the potential bankruptcy is expected to affect the buses in Maine.

The electric school buses have had many problems over the past two years, including having been taken off the road by the Maine Department of Education after the transportation directors in several school districts said they experienced power steering failures while operating the vehicles.

The buses continue to have issues, including a recent recall that has caused the Winthrop Public School board to reconsider having students ride the buses.

Becky Foley, the interim superintendent of the Winthrop Public Schools, said she had not heard from Lion Electric about its potential bankruptcy. She said the board was expected to discuss the matter at its meeting Wednesday night.

In light of the buses’ issues, the company told school districts in Maine it planned to hire a local technician to help correct the problems.

A Lion Electric spokesperson did not respond last week to a Kennebec Journal reporter’s requests for information on whether a technician had been hired, or to a previous inquiry about the company’s financial situation, after the company laid off employees in mid-November.

Since November 2023, Lion Electric has gone from 1,350 employees to 300, La Presse reported, and the company was put up for sale Nov. 18.

The latest layoffs are to affect workers at Lion Electric’s assembly plant in Illinois, where manufacturing operations were suspended Monday.

Lion Electric Co. reportedly has school buses in the Winthrop Public Schools, Yarmouth Public Schools, Eastern Maine School System, Bingham-area Maine School Administrative District 13, Five Town Community School District, Mount Desert Island Regional School System, Sipayik Elementary School in Pleasant Point and Vinalhaven Regional School Unit 8.