Michigan’s $3M bet on EV maker Bollinger Motors hits a bump

Michigan bet $3 million of taxpayer money on Bollinger Motors, an electric truck maker that, two years later, appears to be going broke.

The company headquartered in Oak Park has paused production of commercial cab trucks and is being sued, The Detroit News reported in March.

The company received over $949,000 of Michigan Business Development Program grants and created 75 jobs out of the 165 it promised, according to a fiscal 2024 state report.

The project is still in good standing for the grant, said Otie McKinley, a spokesperson for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

“Clawback provisions are in place should the qualified new jobs for which funding has been disbursed be eliminated prior to the end of the grant term,” Otie told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.

Michigan taxpayers promised the company part of another $100,000 in 2021 to work with Michigan State University on mobility projects.

In 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer promised an all-electric future for Michigan. She gave billions of dollars in subsidies to electric vehicle makers and backed Bollinger’s vision as recently as last year. 

“Bollinger Motors has once again decided to bet on Michigan as they lead the future of class-4 electric commercial trucks,” Whitmer said. “From their headquarters in Oak Park, the company designs, builds, and tests their cutting-edge tech in America, and I am proud that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has worked with them to create even more good-paying jobs right here in our state.”

The company can’t comment directly on the ongoing lawsuit but is working toward a resolution, Bollinger CEO Bryan Chambers told CapCon in an email. 

“We are working towards an outcome to this dispute that will enable us to continue to grow a strong, innovative workforce that develops industry-leading commercial EV trucks,” Chambers wrote.

Many Michigan government agencies and politicians, including Chief Mobility Officer Justine Johnson, supported the company.

“Bollinger Motors’ decision to build its new line of electric commercial trucks right here in Michigan is a testament to our thriving mobility and electrification supply chain,” Johnson said in a 2024 statement. “Electric commercial fleets will play a key role in reducing carbon emissions from the transportation of goods. Bollinger is a company that shares our state's vision for a sustainable future and we are proud that the company chose to Make It In Michigan."

Only one of every 11 jobs promised by Michigan politicians and public officials in business subsidy announcements gets created, according to a study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which analyzed 20 years of state-sponsored deals.

Business subsidies rarely deliver on their promises and waste taxpayer money, James Hohman, the center’s director of fiscal policy, told CapCon in an email. “Some lawmakers love them anyway because they give them a chance to say they’re doing something about jobs. This applies even if the project turns into nothing.”

Whitmer has ordered the state to have an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2040. Currently, the state has 30 electric vehicles, Michigan Capitol Confidential has reported.

In her second term, the governor appears to have turned from that goal. Now, she doesn’t care what kind of vehicle you drive as long as it’s made in Michigan.

Michigan’s climate plan expects 2 million electric vehicles to registered statewide, but the state is 1.95 million shy of that goal.

Last month, another EV maker, which received $900,000 of taxpayer money, said it would shutter two Michigan locations and take 188 jobs out of state, CapCon reported.