Joliet’s Lion Electric plant was roaring a year ago, but it’s reeling now with more layoffs

A little more than a year ago, the governor, the mayor and other politicians joined Lion Electric executives at the new Joliet plant to celebrate the bright future for the electric buses and trucks the company makes.

Now, some of those same politicians are trying to free up federal subsidies to bolster the market for electric vehicles as Lion Electric jobs in Joliet shrink to what may be a few dozen and the company looks to rent out much of the space at its Joliet plant to another user.

“What seems to have happened is that the federal government offered subsidies for the use of electric buses, and the checks have not been written,” Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy said. “We’ve been on the phone with the governor’s office. He’s working hard on this.”

Gov. JB Pritzker and D’Arcy were among those who joined Lion Electric CEO Marc Bedard on July 21, 2023, when they cut a huge electric cord used to symbolize the future of the electric vehicle industry at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Joliet plant.

At the time, a manager at the plant said it employed about 250 workers.

But layoffs began by November and have continued since.

The biggest came Wednesday when Lion Electric ended its second quarter and announced that it was laying off 300 employees, or about 30% of its workforce.

D’Arcy said politicians have started a letter and phone campaign to urge the federal government to free up public money previously approved to subsidize the electric vehicle market.

“The letters are going out probably today, and I’ll probably be making calls next week,” he said Friday.

Lion has not told city officials how many workers were laid off this week or how many are left at the plant, D’Arcy said.

But the job cuts have hit the Joliet plant hard, said Chris Tucker, an organizer for the International Association of Machinists that is trying to unionize production workers at Lion Electric.

“To my knowledge, there’s 25 to 30 people left on the shop floor,” Tucker said.

Before this week’s layoffs, Tucker said he believed there were about 100 production workers in Joliet.

Tucker’s count is unofficial and is based on what he’s hearing from workers, but management won’t give an employee count for Joliet.

Lion spokeswoman Marie-Eve Labranche would not comment on the accuracy of Tucker’s count.

“We do not provide a breakdown of these layoffs by establishment and cannot comment on the exact number of people working in Joliet,” Labranche said in an email.

Lion executives, however, were specific in forecasts of Joliet employment when seeking state and local tax incentives for the project.

A state incentive package worth $7.9 million is based on Lion employing 740 employees three years after starting production. In 2021, a Lion executive told a Joliet committee considering a local property tax abatement that the employee count in four years would be 1,400.

Now, Lion is considering subletting what Labranche called a “significant portion” of its 900,000-square-foot Joliet plant to another user.

She said the plant was built for 75% truck production and 25% bus production, but Lion now does not plan to produce trucks in Joliet for at least three years.

“Although we plan to optimize the use of the company’s facility by potentially subleasing a significant portion, Lion will keep the necessary footprint to maintain its production capacity of 2,500 school buses per year at the Joliet plant,” Labranche said.

Lion Electric is not producing near that many companywide, and the numbers have been falling.

“We don’t want to see an empty building there. Lion remains committed to being part of the community of Joliet.”

—  Paulina Martinez, economic development director for Joliet

The Canada-based company, which also has a production facility in the Montreal area, in 2023 delivered 852 vehicles to customers.

In its second quarter ending July 31, Lion delivered 101 vehicles. That was down from 199 vehicles delivered in the same quarter in 2023.

In its second-quarter report issued Wednesday, the company pointed to delayed government subsidies in Canada as a major reason that its growth has been stunted.

Lion’s quarterly loss in the three-month period ending July 31 was $19.3 million, up from the $11.8 million loss it sustained in the same quarter in 2023.

Despite the company’s financial setbacks, Lion has not been seeking changes in the employment goals connected to its tax incentives, said Paulina Martinez, economic development director for Joliet.

Martinez also said Lion representatives have not given any indication to city officials that they may pull out of Joliet.

“We don’t want to see an empty building there,” she said. “Lion remains committed to being part of the community of Joliet.”

She also noted leaders in Illinois and other states are looking to the electric vehicle business as a growth sector for the future.

“I think Lion Electric is part of an important industry that the state of Illinois wants to see grow,” Martinez said.