Illinois lagging in encouraging EV purchases

Last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker led a trade mission to the UK, where he promoted Illinois to investors as the electric vehicle mecca. But as Pritzker tries to expand on his vision of having a million electric vehicles registered in the state by 2030, the reality is that current electric vehicle development in the state is falling far short of his vision.

With the climate crisis becoming more of an emergency, there is a pressing need to quickly decarbonize automobiles and trucks. Pritzker's vision is laudable, but we doubt that the governor accurately depicted to UK investors the dysfunction that hampers Illinois' competitiveness as both a haven for manufacturing electric vehicles and a state that makes it easy for consumers to own an electric vehicle.

In 2021, Pritzker signed The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), which provides a $4,000 credit to any Illinois taxpayer who bought an electric vehicle. It went into effect in 2022, distributing $20.5 million until the funds ran out. Based on the rebate program statistics provided on the Illinois EPA website, about 1,700 electric vehicle purchasers were told that the fund had run out of money. This year's funding for the rebate is only $12.5 million, clearly not enough.

Assuming no growth at all in electric vehicle rebate submissions from last year to this year (which is unlikely, as electric vehicle purchases should increase), there will be at least 14,200 people eligible for a rebate and only 3,125 rebates awarded, assuming all applications are eventually accepted. In other words, 75% of applicants will be rejected. How does denying 75% of new electric vehicle owners their rebate fulfill the vision of a state that is a haven for electric vehicles?

One would assume Pritzker's vision would result in Illinois supporting California's Advanced Clean Cars II rule. These rules require that manufacturers meet increasing targets for zero/low emission sales of automobiles until 2035, at which point 100% of all automobile sales must be zero emission or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Washington, and Oregon have adopted California's standards, and presumably, more states will sign on to these rules. But Illinois has not adopted these standards. Why not?

Similarly, Illinois still has not committed to California's Advanced Clean Truck rules. To date, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington have also accepted these rules, which require manufacturers of trucks to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks as part of their annual sales from 2024 to 2035.

Pritzker is proud of the new Lion electric school bus factory in Joliet. The 900,000-square-foot facility is the largest U.S. plant dedicated to medium and heavy-duty commercial electric vehicles. But since Pritzker lured Lion to Joliet in 2021, other states are attracting far more electric vehicle manufacturing. Georgia has attracted $23 billion in new electric vehicle investments since 2018. Georgia even has succeeded in convincing Illinois' other electric vehicle manufacturer, Rivian, to expand in the suburbs of Atlanta with a new factory with 7,500 employees, instead of further expanding in Illinois.

Illinois could help Lion by providing incentives with funding to school districts throughout Illinois. There are about 35,000 school buses in the state. The Illinois EPA has modest funding for school districts to replace diesel school buses with electric school buses. However, the program contains a morass of difficult-to-meet criteria, and only a limited number of Illinois school districts have successfully qualified for the program. According to the Illinois EPA website, only 23 electric school buses have been funded through the Illinois EPA program so far. In contrast, New York's state legislature passed a law mandating all new school bus purchases must be electric starting in 2027 and the entire 50,000 school bus fleet must be electric by 2035. The New York legislation is backed by solid funding via a $500 million environmental bond act.

It is not a surprise that Illinois does not perform well in state rankings of electric vehicle policies. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit research organization, created a 2023 scorecard on states' electric vehicle adoption policies. Illinois ranked at an unimpressive number 21 out of all states.

Illinois must do better. Now that the governor is back from his trip, we suggest that Pritzker and the state legislature take meaningful steps to fulfill his vision of 1 million electric vehicles registered in the state by 2030. Otherwise, Pritzker's vision will remain all talk as other states take the lead in meeting the decarbonized transportation future.

• Bruce Mainzer, a retired executive with United Airlines, Hyatt Hotels and other travel industry corporations, is also a former mass transit executive in Chicago and New York City. He serves Electric Vehicle Campaign and Fleet Electrification Campaign of the Chicago Metro Chapter of The Climate Reality Project.