The company, which produces electric trucks and buses from its plants in California in the Montreal exurb of Saint-Jérôme, said the U.S. government is lobbying it to set up its planned battery production facility south of the Canadian border. Production of the company’s six electric vehicle models (four buses and two “urban truck” platforms) is “skyrocketing,” according to CEO Marc Bédard. Power Corporation subsidiary Power Sustainable Capital is Lion Electric’s largest shareholder. (La Presse)

Talking point: Founded in 2011, Lion announced in September it would deliver 10 of its trucks to Amazon which plans to use them for the “middle-mile” portion of its delivery network. Bloomberg reported last week the company was in talks to go public via a merger with New York Stock Exchange-listed blank-cheque firm Northern Genesis Acquisition. The possibility that it might look beyond Quebec for its battery-manufacturing facility could throw the Quebec government’s nose out of joint, given the province’s recently announced plan to become a leader in the production and transformation of “critical and strategic minerals”—including lithium, a key component of electric-vehicle batteries.