Newly-formed school bus manufacturer Lion Bus recently announced it will be teaming up with Spartan Chassis, Inc., to bring a new Type C school bus to the Canadian and U.S. market.
Lion Bus was formed by Marc Bedard, the company president, and Camile Chartrand, chief operating officer, who both worked for Corbeil before the Type A brand was acquired by Collins Bus Corporation in 2007.
The new Type C company, which describes its SB 71 line of buses as “made smart” and “urban jungle safe,” has entered into an agreement with Spartan Chassis, a subsidiary of Charlotte, Mich.-based Spartan Motors, which will provide Lion with a conventional front-engine diesel chassis for use on both Canadian and U.S. Type C school buses.
“Together with Lion Bus, we have developed an exceptional product which offers considerably improved durability and a lower total cost of ownership, particularly lower maintenance costs,” said Spartan Motors Vice President Dave Snitgen in a statement this week.
The bus will offer 65/66 and 71/72 passenger-capacity configurations, and feature a 2010 EPA-Certified Cummins ISB 6.7L diesel engine with SCR technology. According to Lion Bus, the bus body will also have a 15-year product life cycle, and three-point safety lap and shoulder belt can be installed without any loss to capacity. No production date was given.
“We placed a premium on durability and lower maintenance costs, and delivered a value proposition that stands apart from anything on the market today,” added Bedard.
The chassis will be manufactured at the Spartan plant in Charlotte and shipped to the Lion Bus plant, located near Montreal, for completion. At least one dealership, Gorman Enterprises in Elma, N.Y., had obtained a prototype of the new Type C, according to a photo gallery posted on the company’s Facebook page. A walk-around video of the new bus is available on YouTube.
