Have you noticed more electric vehicles on Chicago roads?
PRODUCTION – 24 March 2024, North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne: A screen in an electric car prompts the driver to recharge the vehicle when the charge level is low. Photo: Henning Kaiser/dpa (Photo by Henning Kaiser/picture alliance via Getty Images)
CHICAGO — If you think you’re seeing more electric vehicles on Illinois roads, you may be right!
Illinois is marking an electric vehicle milestone. Last month – the state surpassed 100,000 EV registrations.
The Illinois Secretary of State has been officially tracking the vehicles since November of 2017 when there were just 8,000 EV registrations.
Governor Pritzker has a goal of having one million electric vehicles on Illinois roads by the year 2030.
It’s part of his push to shift to renewable energy. After signing climate action legislation in 2021 Gov. Pritzker said, “There is no time to lose.
Thanks to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, Illinois is taking action in the fight to stop and even reverse the damage that’s been done to our climate.”
Nearly 18,000 EV’s are registered in Chicago alone. Suburban Cook County is responsible for a quarter of the state’s EV registrations.
EV drivers don’t contribute to the gas tax. They pay an additional registration fee to be used for road construction projects in the state.
