Illinois Electric Vehicle Plates

Illinois has Electric Vehicle license plates available. Only problem is, not many dealers or Secretary of State employees know about it. They are two-year issued plates and the initial cost is $35, $27, $18, or $9 depending on which 'pro-rated' part of the two-year period the car is purchased. Renewal cost is $35 for the following two year period. The plates, as I understand it, are issued as sequential numbers followed by "EL". I asked at the time of purchase but the finance guy I was dealing with didn't know, and didn't care to investigate either (wasn't his money). So my hope is someone finds this before they buy and save themselves from the hassle I now face to get my plates reclassified. The SOS has a Special Plates division, and the phone number is 217-782-7758.

What do they look like? Just curious. What a PITA to get your green plates.

In Ontario, it just part of the deal when you register your EV. Well, when the dealer registers the EV - we don't have to do anything but pay for the car and drive it off the lot.

Here's ours:

An update to getting plates for an EV: An AFFIRMATION FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE form needs to be submitted along with an APPLICATION FOR VEHICLE TRANSACTION. The "Application" form is required at the time of initial purchase, or if one already has Passenger plates, the form can be submitted for reclassification of license plates. The "Affirmation" form is in the process of being updated by the SOS Office and will hopefully be available online soon.

I finally received my Electric Vehicle license plates.



Sorry the image is so big, I haven't figured out how to scale it down on the forum.

Interesting. Not many will know what the EL stands for though. Its hard enough for most people to understand what my green plates mean. I have border agents at the US/Canada border asking me about them all the time. 'Is that some kind of new plate?', 'What does green vehicle mean?', 'Is that an electric car?', 'Do you drive that everyday?' Our regular Ontario plates are blue and say 'Yours to Discover' at the bottom.

I guess if I want people to know I'm driving electric, I'll have to get those 3M designs for the side of the car that say '100% Electric' on the side.