Lansing — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s years-long effort to electrify the state’s gas-powered vehicle fleet is losing steam heading into her final months in office.
For the first time in five years, Whitmer is not requesting any new funding for electric vehicles, charging stations or related electric vehicle investments from the state Legislature.
The outgoing governor’s final budget proposal, presented to lawmakers last week, included no requests for buying new state-owned electric vehicles, despite an executive directive requiring the state fleet to transition to zero-emission vehicles between 2033 and 2040. And, more broadly, Whitmer’s spending plan had no items related to electric vehicles, despite those requests being commonplace in past spending plans.
Past EV funding recommendations from Whitmer — outside of the millions of dollars allocated in cash-for-jobs tax incentives for electric vehicle and parts production — have had mixed success.
From 2022 through 2025, lawmakers gave the Whitmer administration a relative pittance compared to the funding she requested for the installation of EV charging infrastructure and state fleet transition costs, awarding her a total of $2 million for the state fleet to transition to EVs despite back-to-back $10 million requests in 2022 and 2023 and a $2 million request in 2024.
Likewise, the governor requested a total of $108 million for EV charging infrastructure between 2022 and 2026 and received at least $36 million in funding, records show.
The governor asked for $50 million in EV rebates in 2022, $48.4 million in EV sales and use tax exemptions in 2023 and $25 million in gas-powered and electric vehicle rebates in 2025. The Legislature implemented none of those recommendations.
Instead, the state, according to interviews and documents obtained through public records requests, has acquired 41 electric vehicles since the start of 2024 — three of which were given to state department leaders — and is installing 14 charging stations at various state-owned garages and lots.
Apart from the government-specific investments, the state has allocated nearly $5 million of a $30 million earmark meant to increase charger availability by installing EV chargers at 60 private apartment complexes.
Whitmer’s office did not respond when asked about the dearth of EV-related spending items in this year’s spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, three months before she’s set to leave office because of term limits.
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, an Ann Arbor Democrat who spearheads the Senate’s environmental spending plans, said he’s unsure why the governor stopped asking for funding, but he speculated House Republicans’ “full-throated” opposition to electric vehicles made the effort moot at this point. Plus, Irwin noted, it will take time for the state to spend the millions of dollars it appropriated during the Democrats’ control of the Legislature in 2023 and 2024.
“I’m a big believer in building the cars of the future here; I see the EV market growing,” Irwin said. “I wish there was more progress, but one of the biggest things we’re running into is just opposition to this type of technology.”
State Rep. Tom Kuhn, a Troy Republican who oversees the House’s general government spending plan, noted a state study released in September listed the limited number of EV alternatives as a barrier to the state transitioning it’s fleet to electric vehicles. Perhaps, he said, that’s why the governor has not asked for continued funding.
“It’s common sense not to fund things that aren’t economical and won’t do the job that they need them to do,” Kuhn said.
The Republican-led House’s budget last year unsuccessfully attempted to prohibit the lease or purchase of electric vehicles for the state fleet.
State fleet EV purchases
In December 2023, the governor issued an executive directive requiring all light-duty vehicles in the state fleet to transition to zero-emission vehicles by 2033 and all medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in the state fleet to transition by 2040. The directive also required the Department of Management, Technology and Budget to install electric vehicle supply equipment, such as chargers.
As of last week, the state fleet — which includes about 9,481 leased vehicles and 5,266 agency-owned vehicles — includes 41 total electric vehicles. Twenty-four of those 41 were detailed in receipts obtained by The Detroit News, which showed a total expenditure of $1.3 million for 24 vehicles between February 2024 and December 2025 and more than $500,000 for EV charger purchases and installation between January 2023 and October 2025.
In total, the state has installed or is in the process of installing 14 charging stations. Ten of those are located in state-owned lots and garages — mostly in downtown Lansing — and are available to state employees only.
Another four solar-powered charging stations will be located in state-owned lots in Lansing, Jackson, Traverse City and Escanaba and will be available to both state employees and the public.
In a study released in September, the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget updated its plan to reach the governor’s fleet transition goal, but also listed several barriers to implementation: The cost of the infrastructure investment, the lack of sufficient electrical capacity, the limited number of EV alternatives for most vehicle categories and operational adjustments to accommodate charging time.
Of the 24 EVs acquired between Feb. 6, 2024, and Dec. 11, 2025, the majority have been Chevy Silverado EV work trucks, costing between $66,000 and $78,000. The state is also using two Chevy Blazer EVs at nearly $50,000 a piece and 10 Chevy Equinox EVs at roughly $42,000 a piece, according to records obtained by The News.
Three state agency directors have received state-issued EVs: Labor and Economic Opportunity Director Susan Corbin, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel and Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Director Tim Boring, according to DTMB spokeswoman Laura Wotruba.
“All other EVs in the state fleet are assigned to an agency or motor pool rather than an individual,” Wotruba said.
The state has not covered the cost of charging equipment installation at the homes of any of those directors, Wotruba said.
Statewide, Whitmer has set a goal of building 100,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030 to support 2 million electric vehicles. EV registrations in Michigan as of June 2025 stood at more than 85,000, nearly four times the 20,000 registered EVs on the road in 2022, according to data from the state environmental agency.
MSP rolls out Mach-E pilot
Among the 24 vehicles acquired between February 2024 and December 2025, a Mustang Mach-E was used on a trial basis last year for MSP security patrols at state-owned and leased facilities in Lansing. The department had begun testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, according to a January 2025 MSP press release, but had only used hybrids up to that point.
“Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle,” Michigan State Police Director Col. James F. Grady II said in a statement last year.
MSP confirmed the Mach-E remains in use in the Lansing area but said its evaluation of the battery-electric compact crossover is ongoing.
A public records request for documentation related to the department’s use of the Mach-E indicated that MSP had conducted test runs with a Ford Mustang Mach-E in September 2023 but had yet to determine how the vehicles performed in permanent service. The vehicle was recommended on a pilot basis for state security operations, where it would have a small patrol range and never be far from a charger.
The pilot was launched in January 2025.
By July 2025, the MSP recommended that the Mach-E be temporarily removed from the road after Ford issued a recall warning of a malfunction in the door lock mechanism. In the event of a low battery, the recall warned, the electronic door latches may remain locked, “possibly trapping someone who is unable to use the inside door release handles, such as a child in the back seat.”
In emails last July, MSP First Lt. Jay Poupard said he was open to discussing what to do about the recall but preferred that the Mach-E be removed from the road.
“My preference is we take the Mach E out of service until there is a documented software resolution,” Poupard wrote on July 27. “Ford advises a remedy should be in place by end of September.”
The documentation provided to The News did not say what the team ultimately decided; but MSP, in a statement last week, said the vehicle ultimately was never removed from the road. It has been seen in use around in downtown Lansing in recent weeks.
Other charging infrastructure investments
Apart from the charging stations deployed in state-owned lots, Michigan lawmakers allocated more than $35 million for electric vehicle charging stations across the state — about $5 million was allocated in 2023 toward a Lake Michigan Circuit, a multistate initiative to build EV chargers along Lake Michigan, and $30 million in 2024 for a Clean Fuel & Charging Infrastructure program.
The state has yet to tap into the $5 million allocated for the Lake Michigan Circuit, in part because the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy first used money the state obtained in the Volkswagen emissions scandal settlement. In the first round, about $862,000 in settlement funds were used to help install 26 chargers at 17 locations, according to EGLE records.
Of the $30 million Clean Fuel and Charging Infrastructure, about $10 million will be used for non-publicly available Level 2 AC charging stations at multifamily housing units, $10 million for publicly available Level AC or DC charging stations, and $10 million for non-publicly available charging units for fleet electrification.
So far, the state has awarded about $4.9 million toward private charging stations at 60 multifamily housing units across Michigan, according to state records. The requirement that some of the money serve private single and multifamily housing units was dictated by the budget language, said Jeff Johnston, a spokesman for the Department of Energy, Great Lakes and Environment.
“The intent is to have chargers available for residents of multifamily buildings who otherwise would lack the opportunity for at-home charging, since multifamily renters are typically unable to install EV chargers,” Johnston said in an email. “Also, these are slower level 2 chargers better suited for overnight or longer-interval charging rather than quick stops during travel.”
Most of the 60 apartment complexes served in the first round of funding are in southeast Michigan, with a handful scattered also in Flint, Lansing and Grand Rapids, according to a list provided to The News.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Whitmer’s drive to electrify state’s vehicle fleet starting to fizzle
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
