40 new public EV chargers are coming to Springfield, Illinois

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Forty new Level 2 charging ports will be installed in Springfield, Illinois, thanks to a $629,000 grant from the Illinois Community Charging Program. The city’s electric utility, City Water Light and Power, received the grant and will own the new chargers. The utility aims to continue expanding its charging infrastructure after adding 40 new ports.

Currently, there are about 190 charging stations in Springfield, according to Plug share. According to the same website, believe it or not, 16 of them are free. Only those under 40 are fast chargers.

On the surface, it might not seem like adding 40 new public EV charging ports is newsworthy, but it is, because adding more new chargers reduces the range problem in places where there aren’t enough and new installations are actually happening. Lots of places. According to Energy Department data reviewed by Bloomberg, “about 78,780 public rapid charging stations opened nationwide in the third quarter of 2025.

Springfield has a population of about 114,000, and hundreds of thousands visit each year to experience sites related to Abraham Lincoln. Many travel to Springfield By car. “Tourism is big business in Springfield, bringing in $536 million in 2023. Tourism is tied to 3,500 hospitality jobs in the city and $20 million in local tax revenue, according to Springfield Director Scott Dahl.” You wouldn’t think little old Springfield would have that many annual tourists, but it does, and more and more of them drive EVs.

Springfield is the capital of the state of Illinois and is the population center for central Illinois, so it also has visitors related to all government activities.

The entire state of Illinois is Less than one and a half lakh Registered EV. Expanding public charging infrastructure could help drive greater EV adoption, especially since federal EV purchase incentives are no longer available.

Some people seem to believe that EVs need 800 miles of range or more to solve “range anxiety,” but that’s not true. What is needed is the expansion of EV charging infrastructure to reduce the distance between existing public chargers.

An example of this, not in Illinois, is the “West Coast Electric Highway, an extensive network of electric vehicle (EV) DC fast charging stations located every 25 to 50 miles along Interstate 5 and other major roadways in the Pacific.”

When there are public EV chargers every 25 miles or so, no EV will need much range.