Are we still convinced that electric vehicles are the best way forward?

Ehh, Canada

The Biden administration awarded Canadian electric bus maker Lion Electric $159 million in advance to manufacture 435 school buses between 2022 and 2024, making it the third-largest recipient of such funding.
The company has since fallen into bankruptcy, failed to deliver hundreds of the buses it promised, and warned school districts that its dire financial straits prevent it from servicing those in circulation.

As a result, many of those districts are turning back to diesel.

The Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this year that Lion, then nearing bankruptcy, had yet to deliver $95 million worth of the electric buses it pledged to produce as part of the Biden administration's $5 billion Clean School Bus program.
Since then, Lion was sold for just $6 million during bankruptcy proceedings after being valued at $4.7 billion as recently as June 2021. The company also permanently shuttered multiple manufacturing plants, fired the majority of its employees, and told consumers that it could no longer honor warranties and purchase orders in the United States.

SURPRISE!

Whoda thunk it?
Only everybody but Kamala and crew.

New USA EPA head Lee Zeldin, who has been like a blue-tick hound on the trail of every misspent dollar his agency was handing out before he took over, had another bomb to drop about POTATUS and the rest of his marauding band of Green grifters.
Not only did Lion fail to deliver $95M worth of buses that were ordered, but the Biden EPA had written Lion a $160M check for the entire deal upfront.

. Several school districts across the country have completely removed their Lion buses from service over mechanical and safety concerns. A superintendent for a Midwest school district told industry publication Clean Trucking the district's buses could not heat up in cold weather, lost steering and braking ability at times, had defective frames, and regularly displayed error messages that forced drivers to reset the vehicles.

"The buses do not run for more than a month before needing more repairs," Coleen Souza, assistant to the superintendent of Winthrop Public Schools in Maine, told Clean Trucking.
School officials whose districts have not received the Lion buses the Biden administration had promised them are losing hope that their vehicles will ever arrive.

"We have not received any buses," Dawn Wallace, superintendent of the Ohio Valley School District in Adams County, Ohio, told the Free Beacon. "At this point, we are not really hopeful that we will. We will maintain our diesel-powered fleet and, yes, continue to purchase those in the future." Jason Stabler, superintendent of the Bureau Valley School District in Manlius, Ill., echoed Wallace's concerns.

The money's gone, the buses these school systems (some municipal transportation systems, too) have will, before long, start to develop gremlins of the electrical persuasion and crap out, with no warranty, probably no parts, and for darn sure no one to fix them.
Pray no one is hurt or injured or freezes to death on one of these buses in the meantime.

Zeldin's EPA says they're monitoring the Lion bankruptcy, but good luck with that it's a Canadian company, to start, and the multibillion-dollar boondoggle was just unloaded during a bankruptcy auction for a mere $6 million.
Not much on those bones for anyone to recover anything.
Almost like it's by design. Like, seriously, where does $4.7B vaporize to?

Only the greene cultists seem to be able to pull that kind of scam off right up to the bitter end.
POOF! Into the ether alongside with their unicorn fart promises.

Barra should be fired !

GM. on Tuesday reported that it sunk roughly $1.6 billion into electric vehicle manufacturing capacity that it no longer is using because of shifting federal auto policies under President Donald Trump.
GM reported the loss to the Securities and Exchange Commission as what's known as an impairment charge.
Impairment charges reflect assets that are not expected to bring in profits as initially expected.

GM "made significant investments and contractual commitments in the development of electric vehicles (EVs) to help the Company’s vehicle fleet comply with emissions and fuel economy regulations that were scheduled to become increasingly stringent," according to a company filing.
"Following recent U.S. Government policy changes, including the termination of certain consumer tax incentives for EV purchases and the reduction in the stringency of emissions regulations, we expect the adoption rate of EVs to slow," according to GM's filing.

"These developments have caused us to reassess our EV capacity and manufacturing footprint."
GM executives have continued to call electrification the company's "North Star."
But, along with other EV makers, the company has been shaken this year by Republicans' removal of a $7,500 tax credit for EV buyers and lessees, as well as Trump's efforts to pull back federal rules limiting vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

GM more than doubled its electric vehicle sales in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago, largely due to drivers hoping to take advantage of the tax credits before they expired Sept. 30.
Analysts predict a steep drop-off in EV sales in the coming months.
Interest in EVs among U.S. drivers, while increasing, is also doing so at a far slower pace than many in the industry expected.

Also, the bulk of GM's impairment charge of $1.2 billion represents machinery and other equipment to make EVs that is now sitting unused.
Another $400 million is mostly from canceled contracts with suppliers to provide GM with more parts, materials and equipment than it now can use.

GasBuddy confirms national average hits lowest level in months as first $1.99 price surfaces

The national average price of gasoline in the U.S. fell below $3 per gallon on Sunday for the first time since December 29, 2024, according to GasBuddy, North America’s trusted fuel savings platform for more than 25 years.
As of 9:30 a.m. ET, the intra-day national average stood at $2.969 per gallon, on track to potentially be the lowest daily average since May 2021.
However, prices may not hold at that level for long, with increases expected in the Great Lakes following last week’s refinery fire which boosted wholesale gasoline prices in the region.

Seasonal factors could push prices even lower in the coming weeks. GasBuddy forecasts the national average could dip into the $2.80s by year’s end as gasoline demand eases, and oil prices remain near multi-year lows.

The recent decline stems largely from OPEC’s decision earlier this year to increase oil production, marking a shift from its 2023 strategy of cutting output to prop up prices. Since March 2025, OPEC+ has steadily raised production, fueling expectations of a potential crude glut.
Some investment banks now warn oil could fall into the $40-per-barrel range as early as 2026.
Combined with falling seasonal demand and the switch to cheaper winter gasoline, pump prices have dropped sharply, including a $1.99 per gallon cash price reported to GasBuddy at a station in Evans, Colorado.

By the numbers:

• Current national average: $2.97/gal, 16 cents lower than a year ago
• Days since last $2.99 national average: 295
• Median U.S. gas price: $2.82/gal
• Most common U.S. gas price: $2.89/gal

“We saw a few $2.99 days last year, but this year brings the strongest potential for extended sub-$3 prices since 2021,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
“This drop is overwhelmingly being driven by the significant increase in oil production from OPEC throughout 2025, which has meaningfully rebalanced the global oil market.
That, combined with weaker demand and inflation finally easing, has created the perfect environment for lower prices.
While some may be quick to assign political credit, the reality is that global supply dynamics, particularly OPEC’s production decisions, have been the primary force behind the relief drivers are seeing at the pump.”

General Motors Co. is ending production of electric delivery vans at a plant in southern Ontario, dealing another blow to a Canadian auto sector that is hemorrhaging jobs.

The automaker is stopping the assembly line that made BrightDrop vans in Ingersoll, Ontario. The future of the CAMI plant was already in doubt after GM announced in April it would halt production for months because of weak demand.
It sold just 274 of them in the first quarter.

“A changing regulatory environment and the elimination of tax credits in the United States have made the business even more challenging,” GM said in a statement Tuesday. “The decision is part of broader adjustments the company is making to North America EV capacity.” It’s not moving production of the van to the United States.

The company said it will speak with Unifor, the Canadian autoworkers union and the Canadian and Ontario governments about the future of the factory, which lies about halfway between Detroit and Toronto.

Canada’s auto sector sells most of its production to the U.S. market and has been severely hurt by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and hostility to foreign auto imports. The U.S. levies have led GM and other automakers to shift some production to the United States.

Last week, Stellantis NV ended plans to manufacture the Jeep Compass SUV at its plant near Toronto, putting 3,000 direct jobs on the line and many more at nearby suppliers.
The Canadian government has threatened legal action against the automaker: Industry Minister Melanie Joly said she would consider Stellantis in “default” in light of government support extended to the automaker.

Stellantis plans to make that vehicle at a plant in Illinois instead.