GILLIG, a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty transit buses in the US, announced that GERCO LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has acquired select assets from Lightning eMotors and Lightning Systems through a receivership sale, and has hired a number of former engineering employees of Lightning.

In line with this expansion of GILLIG’s existing expertise and engineering capacity, the acquisition will also mark the launch of GILLIG’s new Colorado Technology Center, which will serve as an engineering hub for the company.

Based in Loveland, Colorado, Lightning specialized in repowering commercial vehicles and developing electric powertrains and analytics capabilities. GERCO was selected as the purchaser from a court appointed receiver, and the acquisition of assets was approved by the court.

Lightning discontinued its business operations prior to GERCO’s purchase, including the sale and servicing of commercial vehicles. Lightning’s business operations were not acquired and will not be resumed by GERCO or GILLIG. With this acquisition, GILLIG, the market leader in zero-emission buses in America, aims to expand its electric powertrain engineering capacity as the demand for zero-emission transit solutions continues to increase.