MONTREAL — You’d be forgiven if you haven’t heard of the Lion6. Unlike many other electric vehicles, which tend toward slick lines and outsized price tags, the Lion6 looks like an updated version of what you might find in a U-Haul lot, minus the noise and emissions. This “all-electric urban truck” tops out at 105 kilometres an hour. There is no Ludicrous Mode.
The Lion6 and its manufacturer, Lion Electric, are nevertheless one of the sleeper hits of these COVID-addled times. In documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision in the dying hours of 2020, the company revealed it had entered into an agreement with Amazon to deliver up to 2,500 trucks to the company by 2030. Translation: along with its beefier cousin Lion8, the Lion6 will be a significant cog in Jeff Bezos’s outfit’s drive to net-zero carbon by 2040. In fact, Bezos et al. are apparently so enamoured with Lion Electric’s wares that Amazon has taken the option to buy up to 20 per cent of the company.
