North Cook News

Local critics are beginning to line up against a bill being considered in the Illinois General Assembly that would require an electric vehicle docking station to be built into all new homes statewide. 

“Stop House Bill 2206 and Senate Bill 40, please! There are more pressing matters to address than forcing us to have something we don't want or need. If a person purchases a home they can make the choice to add,” Marilyn Evans Czerwinski, a Northlake resident, said on Facebook. Czerwinski: ‘There are more pressing matters to address than forcing us to have something we don't want or need’

The legislation under consideration – House Bill 2206 and Senate Bill 40 – would mandate “a garage to have enough electric generating capacity in the garage to charge an electric vehicle.”

Critics are arguing the state government is penalizing builders and those forced to buy technology they may never use. "This is a mandate with no funding behind it, a mandate that every new house, single-family duplex, then it gets into the multi-family, would have to have electric car charging stations," Dean Graven of the Home Builders Association of Illinois said on WMAY. "For every $1,000 price increase on a home, you knock out 6,000 buyers."  

Graven said legislators are not factoring the added costs in the legislation. He added that many homeowners do not need or want an electric vehicle charging port. 

"You could fish wires from the breaker box to whatever location … you need," Graven said. "This is a lot less expensive and then if a consumer says 'I do not have one, I am never going to buy one, so I don’t have to spend any more money.’" 

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on 2021 Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois Act which grants heavy subsidies to consumers who purchase electric vehicles. 

“The credits range from 75 percent to 100 percent of income tax withheld for creating new jobs or 25 percent to 50 percent for retained employees, depending on various factors such as company location,” the governor’s office said in a press release at the time. 

However, those funds – unlike those in the recent proposal – were outlined by the state government.