Lion Electric Offering EV Charging Equipment, Expertise

The Lion Electric Company, which makes battery-electric trucks and buses, has launched a new division focused on making electric-charging infrastructure easier for fleets.

Lion partnered with ABB to offer its charging equipment products and services. ABB’s complete charging equipment product line will be sold under Lion Electric’s new Lion Energy infrastructure specialty division.

Lion Energy packages charging infrastructure design and review, project management, utility coordination, and customized consultation for its customers to help ease the complex process of charging station installation.

During a recent ACT Virtual session on electric-truck charging, Christopher Ralph, energy specialist for the new Lion Energy division, explained that its experts “can develop and design a parking lot, a garage, a gantry system. We can also install if for you; we have a network of qualified electricians coast to coast. We can customize. We know your vehicles have different operational requirements, different needs, are doing different things. Maybe you require AC charging, or DC, or vehicle to grid, or solar or battery or wind along with that. We can project manage the solution from end to end. You will not be dealing with a million different contractors, charging providers, etc.”

The solution is also designed to ensure infrastructure installation is accomplished in tandem with the vehicle purchasing process, according to Lion, giving customers the capacity to meet the charging needs of current fleets as well as the ability to scale in the future.

Ralph noted that the service is available for all electric-vehicle fleets, whether they are Lion Electric models or another brand.

“We manage EVSE (the two-way communication between the charger and vehicle that manages the charging current) and infrastructure installation before electric vehicle delivery, whether you’re buying our vehicles or someone else’s,” he said. “The goal is the minute you receive them they can start generating ROI for you.”

That involves Lion Energy engaging directly with the utility company. “We understand what questions to ask and know who to go to,” Ralph said.

ABB will supply a full range of solutions to support Lion’s vehicles, which range from small buses to 300-kilowatt battery trucks. The supplier’s offerings include compact AC wall boxes, DC fast-charging stations, Terra 54 (fast chargers), and heavy-vehicle chargers.

Ralph noted that the partnership is not exclusive; Lion Energy will work with fleets that prefer a different brand of chargers.

The intent of the partnership is to help grow the EV charging infrastructure in North America by offering easier integration to make truck-fleet electrification a reality, according to Lion. It is also expected to accelerate the purchase of Lion’s EVs and related services by eliminating the challenges related to EV adoption.

ABB will train Lion staff to service its EV charging hardware and software solutions, and will support the installation of the charging equipment for end users, to help make the implementation of electrification easier for fleets.

Since entering the EV charging market a decade ago, ABB has sold more than 14,000 direct current fast chargers across more than 80 countries, according to Lion Electric.

Lion Electric is an innovative manufacturer of zero-emission vehicles. The company creates, designs and manufactures all-electric class 5 to class 8 commercial urban trucks and all-electric buses and minibuses for the school, paratransit and mass transit segments. Lion is a North American leader in electric transportation and designs, builds and assembles all its vehicles’ components, including chassis, battery packs, truck cabins and bus bodies.