Josh Wheeler, the transportation director for the Winthrop Public Schools, plugs in a Lion Electric Co. bus Jan. 16 in Winthrop. The buses remain out of service, but must be plugged in to run their climate control system. Federal agents have recently visited Winthrop as part of an investigation into the faulty buses, interim Superintendent Becky Foley says. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

WINTHROP — Federal agents visited Winthrop schools in late January as part of an investigation into Lion Electric Co.’s electric buses, interim Superintendent Becky Foley told the school board earlier this month.

Foley said Feb. 5 that a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency interviewed her and Josh Wheeler, the district’s director of transportation, about the four electric buses Winthrop has received from Lion Electric Co., which have been plagued with problems since they arrived in Winthrop in late 2023.

“I met with an EPA special agent last week to see if there was any fraud committed by Lion,” Foley said. “I think whatever resolution may occur will take some time, and I will keep the board posted.”

Lion Electric Co., a Quebec-based company that recently filed for credit protection, was the first to provide Maine with electric buses through a federal program designed to replace diesel buses with no-emission electric vehicles.

In all, 30 school districts across Maine received a total of 72 electric buses through the EPA-run program. However, the Lion Electric buses, which now have been sent to nine of the districts, are the only buses to consistently have problems, Commissioner Pender Makin of the Maine Department of Education said in a letter to the EPA last month.

Lion Electric is no longer part of the state’s program to provide electric buses to school districts.

Makin’s letter asked the agency for answers on how Maine schools who received Lion buses should proceed. In more than half of the school districts, including Winthrop, the buses remain inoperable.

A former technician from Lion described the buses as “more like a science project than a validated, road-legal vehicle,” and warned federal and state agencies about the unsafe nature of the buses. Additionally, reporting from the Kennebec Journal shows that schools reported problems with the buses from Day One.

While under credit protection, the company does not have the ability to ship the parts needed to fix the buses. Lion also owes the Winthrop schools at least $57,000 for bus rentals to supplement bus runs that could not continue with the Lion buses.

Foley said Thursday the inspector visited for about half an hour and asked about the timeline of the buses in the district.

“We are waiting for the technician to come up. Our buses are still under warranty, so we are waiting for the technician, but there are no technicians in Maine. The tech would be the one to tell us what is wrong with the buses and what our buses need,” Foley said.

The Maine Department of Education is aware that a member of the Office of the Inspector General visited the Winthrop schools, but the office has not been in touch directly with the department, said Chloe Teboe, director of communication for the DOE.

The department has not heard back from the EPA in regards to Makin’s letter.

Andrew Dolloff, superintendent of Yarmouth schools, which also received faulty Lion Electric Co. buses, said he has not heard from the EPA.

Asked for a comment on the investigation, a spokesperson from the EPA directed the Kennebec Journal to the U.S. Department of Justice, which had no comment.