Michigan is hitting the breaks on a program to build more public electric vehicle charging stations in response to a pause in federal funding from the Trump administration.
New leadership at the US Department of Transportation put a pause on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program. NEVI, established under former President Joe Biden. It was set to invest $110 million in Michigan through 2026 to help build 100 charging stations.
"Based on guidance from the USDOT, Michigan is pausing second-round submissions of the NEVI program effectively (sic) immediately. We are working with our federal advisors to determine what impacts may exist for the funding obligated through the first round of NEVI submissions," MDOT spokesperson Jocelyn Garza said in an email. "We have contracts in various stages of agreement from the first round of authorized funds, but we don’t know the impacts for that funding or those contracts yet.”
Drivers at an electric charging station outside Meijer in Detroit were not thrilled to learn the news.
"It's growing, but we’re not there just yet," EV owner JT Tinsley said of EV infrastructure.
“I'm not just upset, I'm worried,” said EV owner Gigi Jones. "That was one thing that made me OK to get an electric car, knowing that the government was so into building these stations."
Jones just bought her Tesla a month earlier. Finding a charge has been harder than she thought, and already she’s had a few close calls of running out of juice.
“Tonight, look at the weather. I almost didn't make it trying to get to an EV station,” said Jones. "I had two miles on this car before I could get to a charging station. This was the closest one for me and I almost didn't make it.”
“The market is already slowing, and one of the biggest concerns for consumers is trying to charge the vehicle,” said auto analyst David Zoia. “Not having an investment in public charging is going to further erode demand for those vehicles, I think.”
Zoia says that concern from customers leads to a catch-22. Fewer customers buying EVs means fewer EVs on the road. Fewer EVs on the road means fewer companies are willing to invest their money into building public charging stations without public funds.
"It's basically reliant on public funding," said Zoia. "If there's a freeze on funding, that’s really going to hamper trying to build up this charging network.”
While EV drivers are the ones who the feel the pain now, Zoia says the constant back and forth on policy also means pain for American automakers which have invested time and money into building more electric vehicles.
“You're investing in that market way in advance, and if the policy changes midstream you have a lot of dollars that have been invested that are going nowhere really," Zoia said. "So I think that's the toughest thing for the auto industry, the inconsistency in public policy.”
