Gov. J.B. Pritzker embarks Thursday on a trip to the United Kingdom to sell Illinois as a business destination as he continues looking for a marquee win in his push to make the state a major hub for the burgeoning electric vehicle industry.
The second-term Democrat will be joined on the latter half of the weeklong trip by a large contingent of state officials, including Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, and leaders in higher education and business. The delegation, numbering more than three dozen, will include representatives from Chicago-based United Airlines and the state’s major utility companies.
As he did during a trip to the U.K. in 2021 and to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year, Pritzker — Illinois’ self-appointed “chief marketing officer” — is expected to tout the state’s ambitious plans for electric vehicle and clean energy development, along with the economic benefits of its central location in the U.S. and its logistics infrastructure.
The governor’s office was unable to give specific examples of businesses that chose to relocate to Illinois or expand in the state as a result of those earlier trips.
“The governor has had productive conversations with businesses looking to expand or relocate to Illinois on every trip he’s participated in,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in statement, without offering specifics. “It is important that he sells Illinois to an international audience who may not know everything the state has to offer.”
Hampered in part by the coronavirus pandemic during his first term, Pritzker has focused more intently on courting businesses since winning a second term in November and after high-profile corporate relocations last year by headquarters for Boeing, Caterpillar and Citadel.
He’s won legislative approval for tweaks to the state’s electric vehicle manufacturing incentive program, along with a $400 million deal closing fund to help bring businesses to the state.
Still, Pritzker has yet to score another major victory in the electric vehicle industry since landing Lion Electric’s electric bus manufacturing plant for Joliet in 2021.
Pritzker will begin his weeklong sojourn with a three-day stop at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, billed as a “celebration of motorsport and car culture,” in Chichester, about 54 miles southwest of London. There he’ll meet with leaders in the automobile, energy and supply chain industries, according to the governor’s office.
From Sunday through Wednesday, the governor and first lady M.K. Pritzker will be joined by a delegation of 40 state officials and business and higher education leaders on a trade mission in London.
In addition to Welch, the group includes University of Illinois President Tim Killeen, Commonwealth Edison CEO Gil Quiniones and the heads of industry lobbying groups representing Illinois manufacturers, retailers, hoteliers and real estate agents, among many others. A spokesman for Senate President Don Harmon said the Oak Park Democrat was unable to join Pritzker on the trip due to a prior commitment.
Pritzker, a billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir, is covering the trip’s costs for himself and his wife, and will pay for a group of staffers to attend the festival, according to the governor’s office.
Taxpayers will be footing the bill on the London portion of the trip for a group that includes a half-dozen top Pritzker aides and three top officials with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Intersect Illinois, the state’s public-private economic development organization, is covering travel costs for two of its top executives and is sharing other costs, such as events and travel for the delegation, with the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the governor’s office said.
The Pritzker administration was unable to provide a price tag for the trip.
“There are a variety of variables that will impact the final cost of the trip,” Abudayyeh said in a statement, adding that the governor’s office will be able to provide a final accounting for its portion of the trip’s expenses upon its completion.
Other members of the delegation, including the private business leaders and lobbyists, will be paying for their own airfare and lodging, according to the governor’s office.
The focus of the trade mission could well be finding a new EV manufacturer to plug into the shuttered Belvidere Assembly Plant near Rockford.
In February, Stellantis “indefinitely” idled the 60-year-old plant and laid off its last 1,200 workers after halting production of the Jeep Cherokee amid dwindling sales. Production of the next-generation Cherokee is reportedly shifting to the Stellantis plant in Toluca, Mexico.
Stellantis bypassed Belvidere when it announced last year it would produce its next-generation Charger and Challenger EVs in Windsor, Ontario, where it is also building a $5 billion battery plant.
Pritzker hasn’t given up hope on convincing Stellantis to stay in Belvidere, telling the Tribune last month that the state is “in a pretty good place” with the company and that executives “understand we’re providing significant incentives.”
And while Stellantis could use Belvidere as a bargaining chip in the just-started negotiations with the United Auto Workers by agreeing to put a product back in the plant, Illinois is exploring other options — including foreign EV manufacturers — to fill the void.
“The closure of Belvidere could be the catalyst to encouraging the state to look elsewhere for business opportunities,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, a Pennsylvania-based research firm.
Fiorani said the entire automobile industry is converting to EVs, but foreign manufacturers will need to build on U.S. soil to take advantage of the $7,500 tax credit for buyers under the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
While Hyundai is building an EV plant in Georgia, no other foreign manufacturer has staked out turf in the U.S., Fiorani said, creating an opportunity for Illinois. The trade delegation could make a pitch for Mini, which is owned by BMW and headquartered in the United Kingdom.
“Mini’s next generation of vehicles are going to be electric,” Fiorani said. “But they don’t have a plant set up in North America to build them yet.”
The center of the Illinois EV ecosystem is Rivian, which bought an idled Mitsubishi plant for $16 million in 2017, completed a $1.2 billion renovation and breathed new life into Normal, a college town about 130 miles south of Chicago.
California-based Rivian launched production in September 2021. It now has 7,000 employees building an electric pickup truck, SUV and Amazon delivery van in a formerly vacant, 3.3 million-square-foot auto plant.
Fiorani said Belvidere could follow the same path by importing an EV manufacturer.
“When you lose a plant like Belvidere, you need to focus on regaining, recapturing that market share,” Fiorani said. “And making sure it’s electric is the way to go forward to make sure that you are part of the future and not relegated to being part of the past.”
