When Michigan has 2 million EVs, how many chargers will we need?

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer believes Michigan needs the infrastructure for 2 million electric vehicles by 2030. If this were to happen, Michigan would need nearly 1.6 million charging ports, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Energy Department’s estimate comes courtesy of its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Projection Tool, which is available online. Michigan would need 1,576,219 charging ports to support 2 million electric vehicles, according to the estimate.

Of those, 95% would be stationed in single-family homes or for private use in common-living situations. Most, 91.5%, would be in single-family homes. That’s 1.44 million chargers. Another 55,402, or 3.5%, would be private units installed at condominium or apartment buildings.

Michigan would need 73,217 level-two charging ports. These are the fast version of widely available chargers. They would account for 4.6% of the chargers.

Finally, Michigan would need 5,009 fast-charging direct current ports, which would be 0.3% of the total.

The estimator notes where the numbers stood at the start of the 2020s.

“For reference,” the estimator explains, “there were 7,752,700 light-duty vehicles on the road in Michigan as of the end of 2021 and 27,400 — 0.4 percent -- of those were plug-in electric vehicles.”

The latest Department of Energy count, for 2022, said 33,100 electric vehicles are registered in Michigan. It would take a major uptick in electric vehicle sales in Michigan to reach 2 million by 2030.

Check out the estimator tool for yourself.Starting with the main page, create a statewide estimate. Scroll down to Michigan. Then enter the number of electric vehicles, and the tool will estimate the number of needed charging resources.