On July 17, 2019, The California Energy Commission (CEC) announced a $70 million award for electric school bus purchases. The grant will be allocated across 26 counties throughout the state to accelerate school bus electrification efforts. Lion Electric was chosen as the grant recipient for this round of the CEC’s School Bus Replacement Program. The program is funded though the California Clean Energy Jobs Act and this new award brings the total program funding to $89.8 million. 

California leads the nation in electric school bus deployment. In May 2018, First Priority GreenFleet partnered with Lion Electric to deploy 150 buses throughout the state. Less than $3 million in public investment has been awarded for electric school buses outside of California. The state has yet to make a VW settlement award and funding for electric school buses is likely to increase as these funds are allocated.