Proterra, Lion Electric Land Electric School Bus Orders: What Investors Need To Know

Two electric bus companies that are merging with SPACs landed new deals with school districts this week.

Proterra Lands Large Order: Montgomery County in Maryland placed one of the largest electric bus orders ever seen in the U.S. market.

The county, which is near Washington, D.C., covers 200 schools. The school district will switch its entire public school bus to electric school buses in a transition away from diesel-powered school buses, according to Electrek.

The plan to replace 1,400 school buses is estimated to take 12 years.

The buses will be manufactured by Thomas Built, a Daimler AG DDAIF unit.

The powertrains on the electric buses will be made by Proterra, which is going public via a SPAC merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp ACTC.

Related Link: 16 Electrifying SPACs For Investors To Consider During The Biden Presidency

Lion Electric Signs Large Deal: The Los Angeles Unified School District announced an initial order for 10 LionC electric school buses from Lion Electric.

The largest school district in the state of California covers over 600,000 students from grades K-12 across 1,000 schools. The school district is the second-largest in the U.S.

Lion Electric is going public via a SPAC merger with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp NGA. The company recently delivered electric school buses to the Twin River school district in Sacramento.

The LionC buses, which have a 155-mile range on a single charge, are expected to be delivered in spring 2021.

The press release calls this an “initial order” and does not mention if or when there could be more orders placed between the two partners.

Why It’s Important: President Joe Biden has pledged to convert over 500,000 school buses in the U.S. to zero-emission vehicles by the year 2030.

The two deals signed this week could be a positive step in that direction, with large school districts supporting the conversion to electric school buses.

ACTC, NGA Price Action: Shares of ArcLight Clean Transition were up 7.67% at $21 at last check Thursday. 

Shares of Northern Genesis Acquisition were trading 5.7% higher to $19.85. 

Disclosure: Author is long shares of NGA.

Photo courtesy of Lion Electric.