Charging Toward the Future: Consumers Energy’s Bethany Tabor talks EV Transformation

Bethany Tabor recently had a pizza delivered to her home via an electric vehicle. While that may seem cool now, she hopes EVs are just another ho-hum way to get around as soon as 2030. 

That’s when the state of Michigan plans to have the infrastructure in place to support 2 million EVs on the roads. Yet with seven years to go, Consumers Energy — which expects to service half those EVs, and where Tabor is manager of business electric vehicle programs — counts just over 29,000 in its entire service area today. 

So, there’s still a long way to go; however, the electric utility is looking to jump-start the future of driving with incentive programs aimed at getting businesses, governments and households to start growing the state’s network of vehicle charging stations and workday EV fleets. 

“We’re really focused on powering Michigan’s electric vehicle future and our electric vehicle transformation here in the state. So, what we’re really trying to do is make the electric vehicle experience easy, affordable and convenient for all Michiganders,” said Tabor. 

Through incentive programs PowerMIDrive for residential homeowners and public charging at PowerMIDrive.com — and PowerMIFleet for businesses and government agencies, Consumers Energy offers “rebates for charging stations at homes, businesses, public locations and also for fleets. So, businesses that want to electrify their fleet, we also have rebates for charging stations for them as well,” Tabor said. “We’re really trying to help people get equitable access to EVs and EV charging stations by making it more affordable.”  

So far, Consumers has provided more than 4,000 incentives for EV chargers. 

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