(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is disappointed in an electric vehicle manufacture that’s been approved for state tax credits but is struggling.
In July 2023, Pritzker joined other officials and Lion Electric in Joliet for the company’s ribbon cutting. The Canadian company produces electric school buses and is in line for Illinois tax credits through the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles, or REV tax credit.
Since then, Lion Electric’s stock has dropped and Bloomberg reported the company plans to lay off 400 people, or half its workforce.
Pritzker said the company has not received any state tax dollars.
“If they reach the goals that they’ve set with us, and there’s an agreement that gets set, hiring a certain number of people, fulfilling on a certain amount of investment, then they receive the benefit of those tax credits,” Pritzker said Wednesday at an unrelated event. “But if they don’t, then they haven’t lived up to their part of the agreement, the state does not owe them anything. But look, I’m very disappointed in their progress.”
Pritzker laid the blame on President-elect Donald Trump for the sluggish EV market.
“There’s an awful lot of pressure that’s been put on electric vehicle companies as a result of Donald Trump’s rhetoric and promises that he’s made to kind of tear down the electric vehicle … industry development,” Pritzker said.
State Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, said Pritzker’s vision of using tax funds to prop up the EV industry is wrong and the market should cater to what consumers want.
“You can’t force people to buy electric cars,” Caulkins said. “It’s not going to work.”
Lion Electric’s stock dropped from $2.47 a share in July 2023 to 34 cents a share this week.