Growth of chargers lags rate of EV adoption; overall EV registrations slow in 2024
With nearly half a million dollars of state funding, a new electric vehicle charging station opened in Joliet on Monday. It is the first of hundreds of charging stations set to be installed over the next 18 months as part of a state-funded grant program.
That growth in chargers is important as Illinois aims to rapidly transition toward having more electric vehicle drivers. As of last week, there were about 120,000 EVs on Illinois roads, while the state’s goal is to have 1 million on the road by 2030.
So far, over $25 million in state infrastructure funding has been awarded to gas stations, hotels, governments and other organizations to fund new EV charging. Another funding round of up to $44 million is in the process of being awarded now, with more grants expected in the future.
This round of funding would add about 2,000 new ports – the electric equivalent of gas pumps. That would represent a roughly 47% increase in the number of charging ports around the state, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy. Gov. JB Pritzker said Monday that there will be a charging station “along every highway, every 50 miles.”
The Joliet chargers, built by Veterans Energy Team in partnership with the Joliet Park District, are the first chargers to open after being funded by as part of the state’s Rebuild Illinois capital funding and authorized by the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.
“Reducing air pollution from transportation is vital to a healthy future for our children and our planet,” Pritzker said in a Monday news release. “Today, you see the product of that vision in the first deployment of a CEJA-funded electric vehicle charging port, thanks to support from our federal partners and utility companies.”
Veterans Energy Team received a $480,000 grant to install 12 charging ports across two locations in the city, with four more added using other funding.
Proponents of the EV charging grant program say it is not only a way to meet clean energy policy goals but also a route to create more jobs and opportunities.
“Illinois is full of what? Great union workers, great private sector workers who can install these things,” CEJA chief sponsor Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, said at a Monday news conference announcing the charging station. “We’re going to install these chargers all over, in every community, so that when you’re driving your electric car, you ain’t gotta get it towed.”
CEJA codified the state’s goal of transitioning away from fossil fuels entirely by 2050 and to boost the growth of the electric vehicle market, leading to a need to rapidly expand charging infrastructure.
“To achieve those goals, we know we will need to accelerate the build out of a widespread network of public chargers,” Gil Quiniones, CEO of electric utility Commonwealth Edison, said at the Monday news conference.
ComEd provides electric service for most of northern Illinois, a region that is home to about 90% of EVs in the state.
The company also provided funds for the Joliet project through its rebate program for EV chargers. That program is part of the company’s “beneficial electrification plan” – a CEJA-mandated outline of how the utility will support the state’s clean energy goals.
While ComEd did not say how large the Joliet project’s rebate was, EV charging projects are eligible for up to $500,000 in rebates. Earlier this year, ComEd announced $90 million in available rebates related to electric vehicles through its beneficial electrification programs, according to ComEd spokesperson Lauren Huffman.
In addition to CEJA funding, there are other sources of grant money for charging stations that the state distributes, such as money from a legal settlement with Volkswagen over emission standards and federal grant programs.
EVs by the numbers
While the state’s grants for chargers are only now yielding completed projects, tax rebates for individuals buying EVs have been on the books for several years. Those credits, alongside federal incentives dating back more than a decade and broader consumer trends, have resulted in a rapid growth of EV registrations in Illinois.
Since November 2017, the number of EVs registered in Illinois has grown by about 1,400%, according to data from the secretary of state. Over that same time, however, the number of EV charging ports only grew by about 600%, according to U.S. Department of Energy data.
Globally, the average number of light-duty electric vehicles for every charging port is about 11, with the U.S. having a higher 26 cars-per-port ratio, mostly due to home charging being more popular in the country, according to a 2024 report from the International Energy Agency.
In Illinois, a Capitol News Illinois analysis of federal and state data found that there are about 31 EVs per charging port, including both light duty and larger vehicles like buses. That’s higher than 2017, when there were 15 vehicles per port. This means that more vehicles are competing for charging spots, even as more stations have opened.
The number of charging stations has grown slightly slower than the number of ports as stations increasingly offer multiple ports, but both lag overall EV adoption.
While the state hurriedly works to keep up the pace of charging port installations, another trend has emerged in Illinois: The number of new EV registrations has slowed, mirroring a broader slowdown of the EV market across the country.
The net increase in EV registrations over the past 12 months fell about 9.1%. While that may seem small, prior to this year, the state was just barely on track to meet its million EV goal by 2030. If the current year-over-year pace continues, the state would fall short by almost 200,000 vehicle registrations.