While the rest of the auto world is tapping the brakes, Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer is still mashing the accelerator on electric vehicles. Speaking this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Whitmer insisted Michigan – and the nation – can’t slow down on EV production, even though U.S. consumers very clearly aren’t interested in electric vehicles.

EVs remain a niche product, representing under 10% of U.S. auto sales. When federal subsidies expired in 2025, sales dropped. Not that they were ever great to begin with. The EV push was already limping along even when Democrats were running Washington and federal and state governments were handing out incentives like candy. Under President Trump, the subsidies are gone and so is EV support.

Nevertheless, Whitmer won’t give up the EV push and pointed to China’s 52% EV market penetration as proof the future is electric. Earth to Whitmer: Let China go ahead and make the EVs that Americans don’t want. Who cares?

And here’s something she didn’t mention: China’s market is propped up by aggressive state control, massive subsidies, and companies that don’t answer to the same economic or regulatory reality as U.S. automakers.

Back home, automakers have burned through tens of billions of dollars chasing Democrats’ EV fantasy, while Michigan taxpayers are increasingly angry over the giveaways tied to it. That frustration has only deepened as one “transformational” megasite after another – pitched as essential to growing the EV industry – either failed to deliver or failed to be built at all.

It’s clear that Whitmer doesn’t like Trump’s pullback of all of the Democrats’ EV plans. “Chaos is really bad for business,” she said. No, governor. What’s bad for business is forcing an unwanted product onto consumers, burning taxpayer dollars to prop it up, and pretending failure is just a messaging problem.