Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) blamed a lack of “long-term investments” in electric vehicles on President Donald Trump‘s “chaos.”
During the World Economic Forum on Monday, Whitmer addressed how to build a charging network across Michigan’s grid.
“Chaos is really bad for business,” Whitmer said. “We’ve seen these long-term investments are now being paused because we have a chaotic policy terrain in the United States coming out of D.C.”
The Biden Transportation Department struggled to provide chargers as it promoted EV promises. By May 2024, the administration had only built about eight charging stations over two years with $7.5 billion on hand. Its goal was to have 500,000 new chargers by 2030.
“There’s no question that the advancements are happening, which is precisely why we’ve got to continue to move forward on EV production in the United States and with the auto industry in the U.S.. We cannot slow down even if the policies have changed in Washington, D.C. We’ve gotta continue to move forward on this,” Whitmer added.
Whitmer’s remarks come after a failed plan to give $715 million in taxes and tax incentives to lure Gotion, a Chinese battery maker, to build a plant in rural central Michigan. While Whitmer unveiled the plan in 2022, by November 2025, the state of Michigan announced it was withdrawing the promise of $175 million, after $50 million had already been delivered.
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The Trump administration has since ended incentives for EVs. In July 2025, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which slashed hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits enacted by the Biden administration through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
At the same time, there are high tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, limiting Chinese automakers’ ability to sell their vehicles in the U.S.