First Student, the largest student transportation provider in North America, is electrifying its school bus fleet with Lion Electric.

The company has placed an order for 260 all-electric LionC school buses, which is the largest single order so far for Lion Electric and not too far from the largest order overall in North America (326 units).

The order comes after First Student used a smaller number of Lion Electric school buses. Part of the deal is also the charging infrastructure.

"The company already operates a number of Lion all-electric school buses. As part of the purchase, the LionEnergy team will strategically work with First Student for the selection and installation of necessary infrastructure so that the operator can adequately scale its zero-emission operations."

First Student intends to deploy those new EVs in Quebec, Canada through its subsidiary - Transco.

Deliveries of the fleet will take place beginning in the second half of 2021 through the first half of 2023.

Marc Bedard, CEO and Founder of Lion said:

"Today marks a new step in the adoption of zero-emission school buses. First Student's leadership demonstrates that zero-emission technology is here to meet the needs of the market at scale, as is our production capacity – we are not talking about pilot programs, but rather entire bus fleets going electric, with vehicles that meet the daily requirements of the industry's largest operators."