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Illinois squeaked in a record share of electric vehicle sales last quarter, on par with a national trend tied to the Trump administration’s decision to end lucrative federal tax credits.
Still, the state remains far short of Gov. JB Pritzker’s ongoing push to get 1 million electric vehicles on Illinois roads by 2030.
“Sales definitely went up,” Jeff Foltz, president of the independent market analysis firm Auto Outlook, said of purchases both in Illinois and across the country as the end of the tax credit pulled demand forward. “We saw it measured here in market share, and to me, it does speak to demand for battery electric vehicles.”
The third quarter of this year saw EV sales grow to 8.4% of overall vehicle sales in Illinois, a record, according to data from Experian Automotive published in Illinois Auto Outlook, a local publication of Foltz’s group. That was up a percentage point from the same period last year and from 7.1% the previous quarter, the data showed.
The bump in EV purchases followed President Donald Trump’s administration and congressional Republicans’ decision to end federal tax credits of up to $7,500 for new electric vehicles and $4,000 for used EVs at the end of September, part of a broader tax and spending plan signed over the summer.
Analysts had expected the looming deadline to drive up sales — and it did, in Illinois and across the U.S., as people on the fence about getting a new all-electric vehicle were incentivized to buy before the credit expired.
Nationally, EV sales hit a record 10.5% of the market this past quarter, according to Cox Automotive. But the group also forecast a sales slump in the current quarter as automakers pull back on their plans.
Early state data suggest that pattern is already playing out in Illinois. The secretary of state’s office recorded more than 4,100 EVs purchased in August and 5,400 in September — a sharp increase from earlier months — but only about 1,100 in October, after the federal tax credit expired, according to the office’s data of confirmed and pending vehicle titles.
While the federal tax credit is gone, Illinois still offers a state rebate of up to $4,000 on all-electric vehicles for low-income applicants, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, Commonwealth Edison, the state’s largest electric utility, offers rebates to commercial EV buyers and incentives for people charging EVs at home.
The EV purchases in Illinois overall remain about on par with the national average for EV adoption, which hovers around 8.5% to 9%. That national percentage has been pulled up by a few select states, such as California and Oregon, which have rates above 20%, said Foltz, who works on dozens of markets nationwide.
The goal of getting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 is etched into Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, the ambitious climate legislation Pritzker signed in 2021 that also phases out fossil fuels over the next two decades.
But even with the recent uptick in EV purchases, Illinois is not on track to hit that goal.
The state has roughly 156,000 fully electric vehicles registered, up from about 33,000 the day Pritzker signed CEJA, but hundreds of thousands short of the 2030 goal, according to the secretary of state’s office data, and now without the benefit of a federal tax credit unless it’s reinstated.
The 156,000 EVs in Illinois, as tracked by the secretary of state’s office, do not include plug-in hybrids, which Pritzker spokeswoman Andres Correa said count toward the 1 million EV goal; however, the governor’s office was unable to provide a total count that includes plug-in hybrids. Nationally, plug-in hybrid adoption represents a far smaller share of the market than battery-only electric vehicles, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
There does not appear to be any consequence laid out in state statute if the state can’t reach 1 million EVs in the next five years. Correa said the state is still working toward the goal with or without buy-in from the federal government.
“Illinois has seen unprecedented growth of electric vehicles in 2025, thanks in part to the state’s leadership and incentives that make it easier for families to make the switch,” Correa said in a statement. “While Donald Trump and his allies have rolled back federal clean energy incentives, Illinois is moving in the opposite direction — continuing to invest in jobs, infrastructure, and consumer savings that come with a clean energy economy.”
Correa said Illinois is “strengthening our EV manufacturing base, maintaining some of the most generous state-level incentives in the nation, and keeping Illinois on the road to a cleaner, more affordable transportation future.”
Illinois’ EV rebate plan, which began in 2022, offers $4,000 to low-income applicants and $2,000 to others. The incentive is expected to drop in 2028.
The state this year restricted the rebate to middle-income and lower-income buyers at 500% or less of the federal poverty line, and it capped the price of eligible vehicles at $80,000, said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs at Respiratory Health Association. The goal of that change was getting more EVs into lower-income communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change, he said.
As lower-income buyers are pulled to the front of the line to access a limited rebate pool, some people who apply each year for the state rebate may never receive it, he added.
There have also been bumps in the road as the Trump administration opposes what it describes as EV “mandates” and a rushed transition away from traditional cars.
The Trump administration earlier this year withheld more than $18 million in grants for EV charging stations in Illinois, according to the Pritzker administration, before Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and other state attorneys general successfully sued to restore the funds.
The most recent round of those grants announced in September will fund 167 chargers at 25 charging stations, according to the state. The administration has highlighted that many of the charging stations expected under the grant program are outside Cook County, as it seeks to expand EV adoption statewide.
There are 106 state-funded charging station locations currently online, with more public chargers expected next year through CEJA and federal funding, according to the governor’s office.
Making sure existing federal funds get out the door is a key priority for the Respiratory Health Association, which, as a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, helps shape state policy, Urbaszewski said. The association isn’t specifically pushing for more money in the EV rebate program at this point but is evaluating it and many incentives for EV chargers and adoption, he said.
Getting a million EVs on the road seemed like “a modest goal at the time,” Urbaszewski said, as the state looks to phase out fossil fuels. Now, the federal government is “stopping resources cold that were anticipated to still be there when that goal was set,” he said.
The Illinois Automobile Dealers Association is not currently pursuing any new state incentives to make up for the loss of the federal credit, legal counsel Larry Doll said.
“There are a lot of headwinds right now between the uncertain tariff situation. Obviously, taking away a $7,500 tax credit doesn’t help,” Doll said of the auto market under the Trump administration.
Still, dealers are more focused on other policies, such as a franchise tax issue, and some are readjusting their inventory after they sold off many of their EVs in August and September, he said.
“The other 92% of inventory that dealers sell isn’t affected by that tax credit,” he said.
Anecdotally, he said, he’s already hearing about a dropoff in EV sales at Illinois dealerships.
Despite Illinois’ lofty goals and the expected slump in EV sales nationwide, Foltz of Auto Outlook said he doesn’t think the data shows there’s no demand for EVs.
“If the price of broccoli was going to double next month, it would not make me buy any more broccoli today,” Foltz said, as a metaphor for something he has no desire to buy. But if the price of beer were going up, he said, “I would rush out.”
