Our EV Readiness Checklist and Decision Guide for Local Governments are complete and available at no cost below and on our Becoming EV Ready webpage.
Our EV Readiness Checklist provides a list of actions communities can take to ensure they are prepared for the expected increase in electric vehicles in the future. We modeled our EV Readiness document off of the successful SolSmart program, which offered a checklist of actions and resources as a first step for municipalities to become solar ready.
Our second product, which has not been publicly released before today, is our EV Readiness Decision Guide for Local Governments. This guide assists municipalities in the planning and purchasing process as they decide which EVs or EV charging stations are right for their community’s needs. This guide can help your community select EV charging station sites, consider parking issues, measure success and more.
As you pause to view these documents, we are also wondering about your community’s interest in EVs, EV charging stations, and whether you would want to participate in a future EV Readiness cohort. Please fill out this survey by Nov. 13th, which will help us to alert you when resources become available.
Background
A year ago, we began a project to design an electric vehicle (EV) readiness program for municipalities. We wanted to provide a checklist of actions that municipalities could take to be prepared for the expected increase in EVs on the road, but we needed to know what issues were most important to you. We held 17 listening sessions and gathered feedback from municipalities and other stakeholders on what should be included in this list. We wrote the checklist, the first phase of a future EV Readiness program, with your feedback in mind. When our EV Readiness team member, Tim Milburn of Green Ways 2Go, wrote the EV Readiness Decision Guide for Local Governments, he also considered the feedback we heard at listening sessions. However, we have not released this guide to the public until now.
Next Steps
The next phase of our project involves providing resources to help municipalities achieve action items on the checklist. We plan to work together to take steps towards municipal EV readiness and will create a recognition program to celebrate communities’ successes. We are currently seeking funding for this phase. When we worked as a SolSmart Advisor, we assisted 35 communities in achieving SolSmart designation. Illinois leads the nation in the number of SolSmart communities – even surpassing California and Colorado. Once we obtain funding to move to the next phase of our program, we hope that our region will excel again, but this time in EV readiness.
