Canadian electric vehicle manufacturer Lion Electric plans to build a 900,000 square-foot plant in Joliet, Ill., with an annual productive capacity of up to 20,000 medium- and heavy-duty urban trucks and school buses.

Construction is expected to ramp up in the second half of this year, and the first vehicles are expected to roll out in the second half of 2022.

The Quebec-based company says it designs and manufactures the major components that it assembles and expects to build a “robust local supply chain,” making its vehicles truly American-made. The company is anticipating a surge in demand for electric school buses, and the Joliet plant, about 35 miles from Chicago, will be key to meeting that demand, it said.

“Lion is the leader in electric school buses and has always been dedicated to the U.S. market, and our commitment to be close to our customers is one of the core values we have as a company,” CEO Marc Bedard said in a joint statement  with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday.

“This significant expansion into the U.S. market will not only allow us to drastically increase our overall manufacturing capacity of electric trucks and buses but to also better serve our customers, while adding critical clean manufacturing jobs that will form the backbone of the green economy.”

The project is expected to cost a minimum of $70 million and create about 745 direct jobs over the next three years.

Pritzker said the plant “will put Illinois at the forefront of a national movement to transition to zero-emission vehicle use, advancing our own goals of putting 1 million of these cars on the road by 2030.”

The announcement came just a day after Lion and the Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. announced a “business combination” arrangement in which the latter company invested $490 million in Lion, $400 million of which Lion will use to finance its growth strategy.”