Edison electric vehicle | National Park Service, US Department of the Interior
We present two research reports funded by the Michigan Office of Future Mobility & Electrification to establish the broad contours of a build out of charging infrastructure to support Michigan economic activity:
Part 1: August 2025. The report is principally about public EV charging infrastructure for passenger vehicles—where chargers should be located, grid readiness, consumer adoption, and statewide deployment. It does not appear to devote significant discussion to electric school buses or K–12 transportation fleets. The report repeatedly identifies the University of Michigan and Michigan State University as participants in Michigan’s EV ecosystem, charging research, workforce development, and mobility initiatives.
Part 2: February 2026 This phase of the project is principally an optimization study for upscaling EV penetration and asks the following questions:
- Which charging stations should be built first?
- Which can wait?
- Where should public investment be concentrated?
- How can stranded investment be avoided during early adoption?
Given that the technical specifics have stabilized over the past 5 t0 10 years, the Standards Michigan raison d’être requires turning attention to state specific institutional ownership models. Specifically:
- university-owned and operated;
- parking authority-owned;
- electric utility-owned;
- third-party concessionaire;
- public-private partnership;
- donor-funded demonstration projects;
- research installations;
- fleet-only facilities versus public access.
From the perspective of Standards Michigan, that is where the next frontier lies. The engineering standards are approaching maturity. The unresolved standards are becoming institutional standards—the policies, accounting practices, procurement models, utility tariffs, and governance frameworks that determine whether EV infrastructure remains a mission-supporting asset or becomes a long-term financial liability. These questions will occupy university trustees and facilities executives for the next twenty-odd years. Some of the back-and-forth on this aspect tracks in our coverage of the building codes:
_(2).jpg)
