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, announced Tuesday it is filing for credit protection, the Canadian equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file photo

Lion Electric Co., the Quebec-based company that has provided several Maine school districts with electric buses, plans to file for credit protection, according to a company news release issued Tuesday.

Now, the future of the buses in Maine is up in the air, but officials for the Maine Clean School Bus Program said they are monitoring the situation as it unfolds.

“The Maine Department of Education, along with its partners at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future are evaluating the impact of Lion Electric Company’s announcement and will remain in touch with affected school districts,” said Chloe Teboe, director of communication for the Department of Education. “With respect to the program, aside from Lion Electric, the Maine Clean School Bus Program has other vendors as part of the state’s master agreement for school administrative units.”

Two weeks ago, Lion Electric laid off 400 people at the company and shut its Illinois assembly plant. The company announced it doesn’t have enough revenue over the next year to pay back the $411 million the company has obtained in debt, according to the CBC.

The publicly traded Lion Electric Co. said in the statement that Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act allows it to restructure its finances and pursue a formal sale and investment solicitation process. The act is comparable to U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

While a company restructures, it is still allowed to operate its business, but public trading of its shares is halted.

The Maine Clean School Bus Program is made up of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Department of Education and the Governor’s Office for Policy Innovation and the Future. The state’s program was created to assign buses made available through the federal Clean School Bus Program.

Nine school districts across the state have received Lion Electric Co. vehicles in fall 2023 and started tracking performance problems not long after that. More than a year later, school districts continue to report problems.

In February, the Department of Education sidelined the buses to allow the Maine State Police to inspect the buses and ensure they are safe. When the buses received the OK, the buses were returned to service, but districts continued to report problems with the heating systems and brakes until most of the buses were recalled by Lion Electric in September.

In the meantime, the company had promised to pay for leasing diesel buses to replace the missing vehicles in the bus fleets.

After the buses were returned from Canada, the Winthrop Public Schools — the central Maine school district that received four of the buses — test drove the buses for a month. The school board decided on Dec. 4 to add one of the four electric school buses back to the bus fleet.

Schools were told in October by Lion Electric that the company hired a Maine-based technician to fix the Maine school buses, but the company did not independently confirm that to the Kennebec Journal.