Normal, Ill., Becomes EV Town

The Town of Normal, Ill., Mayor Chris Koos, along with local leaders, have created a program called “EVTown USA,” celebrating the Town’s commitment to electric vehicles and infrastructure. Normal has 50 charging stations, most of them available to the public at no expense, including the only Level 3 charging station in Illinois outside of Chicago. The Town operates 12 Mitsubishi iMiEV electric vehicles in its own fleet, used by the Police, Fire, Building Inspections, Parking Services, Parks and Recreation, Facility Management, and Information Technology departments.

Normal, population 52,000, is the home of the sole North American assembly plant for Mitsubishi Motors. Mayor Koos worked closely with executives at Mitsubishi to transform Normal into EVTown USA. Mitsubishi responded by committing up to 1,000 of its new i-MiEV electric cars to the Normal market in the first three years. Previous to this commitment, virtually no EV deployment was planned in the central part of the United States, according to a release from the Town.

The Town acquired 50 electric vehicle charging stations using grant funds available from the U.S. Department of Energy. These charging stations have been installed throughout the community on public and private property. Most stations are fully accessible to anyone wishing to charge their EV.

Based on information from local car dealers, Town officials believe there are more than 140 EVs currently operating on the streets of Normal. Based on their calculations, they believe Normal has more EVs per capita than any other community in the United States.