CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Green jobs are coming to Joliet with the announcement Friday that a Canadian electric vehicle maker will build its first U.S. plant there.
"This is a big deal," said Governor JB Pritzker.
Pritzker said that when the Lion Electric plant is built in Joliet by the end of 2022, it will begin producing each year nearly 20,000 zero emissions electric buses and trucks.
"Illinois will also become home to the largest dedicated production site for zero emission vehicles of this size in the entire United States," he said.
Lion Electric CEO Marc Bedard said that, "it’s at least 800 jobs within the next three years. Our goal is to ramp up the labor force by way more than that in the following years as well.
"This will give us the ability to meet the increasing demand in the marketplace made in America for electric vehicles."
Sylvia Garcia, the acting director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said Lion Electric will receive nearly $8 million in tax incentives if it spends $70 million towards its Joliet plant and hires nearly 700 people during the three-year agreement.
Governor Pritzker said Illinois is thinking big when it comes to electric vehicle production. He expects more companies that supply parts to Lion Electric and other E-V makers to locate near Joliet.
"We think that Illinois will be best state in the nation for anybody who believes in the developing clean energy economy, and of course, who wants to fight climate change," he said.
Bedard said Lion Electric will be building school buses and minibuses, as well as a variety of all-electric trucks from delivery trucks and moving trucks to refuse trucks and bucket trucks.
Lion Electric said that since 2016, it has had nearly 400 electric vehicles in use in North America, and that combined those vehicles have traveled more than seven million miles.
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