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The project expanded on Ohio's current plug-in electric vehicle readiness activities and produce a replicable deployment plan for plug-in electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, safety trainings, consumer education, marketing, and associated policy solutions.

The Electric Vehicle Smart program will assist local governments in setting and achieving their EV readiness goals as well as promoting equitable access to electric mobility. Four overarching project objectives drive the Recipient’s approach to maximize program impact:1. Facilitate technical assistance (TA) and designation of at least 60 EV Smart communities. 2. Prioritize key objectives identified in the Justice 40 Initiative by developing tools to support equitable access to EVs and EV charging.3. Collaboratively work with four Clean Cities Coalitions (CCCs) to provide TA across communities in Virginia, Colorado, north Texas, southern California, and continuation of Great Plain’s Institute’s (GPI) pilots in Michigan, Ohio, & Minnesota, and Metropolitan Mayor’s Caucus’ (MMC) work in the Chicago area. 4. Develop and test an EV Smart Infrastructure Modeling Tool to enable local leaders and planning agencies to quickly and easily develop a sense of the EV charging infrastructure demand based on anticipated levels of EV adoption.

The Midwest Electric Vehicle Opportunities: Learning, Events, Experience (Midwest EVOLVE) project is an effort to promote plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in a seven-state area including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. This effort educated the general public, workplaces, corporate fleets, and auto dealer staff about the benefits and advantages of PEVs in a variety of settings such as auto shows, ride and drive showcases, dealership trainings, and workplace charging challenges. The seven Clean Cities coalitions partnering to host these events across the Midwest also distributed and analyzed pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys of attendees to determine the outcomes of these outreach efforts.

As of 2018, Midwest EVOLVE has executed a total of 78 ride and drive showcase events, 12 PEV dealership training events, 29 workplace charging challenge showcases, 10 extended test drive programs, 27 PEV forum events, and over 90 educational outreach events. In total, over 90,000 attendees have participated in these events. Notably, the project had displays and ride and drives at the Chicago Auto Show, the Milwaukee Auto Show, the Twin Cities Auto Show, and the Ohio Auto Show in 2018. From the analysis of pre- and post- surveys, the project partners determined that over 21% of those surveyed have purchased a PEV since attending an event. As part of the project, Argonne National Laboratory launched the Evolution Consumer Choice Tool which helps consumers understand the different powertrain technologies and connects them to PEV information on the DOE-supported Alternative Fuels Data Center and FuelEconomy.gov.