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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. |
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