Electrification of school transport | Bringing work to Quebec to access grants

The German group Daimler proposes to bring work to Quebec to allow its Quebec partner Autobus Thomas to be eligible for financial aid from the school transport electrification program. The Legault government’s response will be decisive for the future of the family business, which is playing its last cards.

Julien Arsenault
The Press

This plan was presented to the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) on March 7. The Press obtained it under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information. The proposal is still under analysis.

Thomas Build Buses, a division of Daimler, would increase its finishing activities in Drummondville by approximately 40%. Built in North Carolina, the electric bus would not be ready to roll when it left the factory. The vehicle would be transported to Autobus Thomas, which would perform seat installation, cabin interior finishing, pre-delivery inspection and installation of other components. The working time spent on each bus would reach 90 hours.

This scenario would also allow Autobus Thomas to hire up to 25 employees – more than 50% of its current workforce.

“I still believe that the government is keen to maintain businesses on Quebec territory, underlines the vice-president of operations at Autobus Thomas, Véronique Dubé. It’s 80% of our income that would disappear if we didn’t find a solution. »

The latter does not pass by four roads: the status quo will place the family business founded more than 40 years ago in a “precarious and difficult” financial situation.

Several reviews

Autobus Thomas, Girardin Blue Bird and Autobus Leeds Transit believe that the school transport electrification program, with a budget of 250 million, is too severe. To be eligible for subsidies, the bus must be assembled in Canada. This is a measure to promote local production, as we find in the United States.

However, only one company meets the requirement for Models C and D (the category that represents approximately 80% of school buses in Quebec): Lion Electric, which counts the Quebec State among its shareholders.

A diesel school bus costs almost $100,000 while the electric version sells for around $300,000. Because of the gap, school carriers opt only for subsidized models.

For about a year, all the other distributors and manufacturers dismissed have been asking the Legault government to change its tune.

“Without these products [les autobus scolaires électriques]Autobus Thomas will not be able to continue to carry out its commercial activities and to pursue its development”, underlines the company, in another presentation dated March 27.

We discuss

It remains to be seen whether Quebec will water down its wine. This is not the first time that the program has been criticized by school transport stakeholders. According to the MTQ, the “notion of assembly” includes the “fixing of functional equipment to the chassis of the vehicle” such as the electric motor and the wheels.

These aspects are not included in Daimler’s proposal. Nevertheless, exchanges continue with Quebec, confirms Claudia Loupret, press secretary to the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel.

In an email, she did not give details on the state of exchanges between the Legault government as well as the German multinational and its Quebec partner.

“We see positively each proposal from a company that wishes to assemble electric vehicles in Quebec”, was limited to writing M^me Louret.

The vice-president of Autobus Thomas did not want to go into the details of her discussions with the Legault government, but she confirmed that the exchanges were continuing.

Along with the sale of school buses, the Drummondville-based company maintains 4,500 other buses that currently travel on Quebec roads.

With the collaboration of William Leclerc, The Press