Federal government to pay for 80 percent of county-owned electric vehicles

By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

The county board of commissioners, on April 25, agreed to act as sponsoring agency for a 2024 Carbon Reduction Program project identified as the Electric Vehicles and Charging Stations Project.

Sponsorship includes a willingness to secure and guarantee the local share of costs associated with this project and responsibility for seeing this project through to its completion, with compliance of all applicable laws, rules and regulations.

County Engineer Chuck Grotte said the federal government will pay for 80 percent of county-owned electric vehicles and charging stations. The county will pay for the additional 20 percent of the costs.

Grotte said that, currently, two vehicles and two charging stations are part of discussions with the federal government. “The number of vehicles and charging stations may change,” Grotte added.

County commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of the plan. The lone dissenting vote came from Commissioner Dan Bucholz of rural Perham. He has concerns similar to some county commissioners in other sections of Minnesota.

Across the state some county commissioners, Bucholz included, have expressed concerns about infrastructure needs to support the charging of electric vehicles and associated costs, the feasibility of electric vehicles in rural areas and battery safety and disposal.

“The effects of sub-zero weather on battery life are higher in our area of the Upper Midwest,” Bucholz noted. “I intended my no vote to have the county take a let’s go-slow approach. Test things out before moving ahead too quickly on electric vehicles and charging stations.”

Other county commissioners in Minnesota note that the shift to EVs across the Upper Midwest and Great Plains lags compared with other regions nationwide.

In 2021 Minnesota officially adopted regulations to encourage the switchover to electric vehicles. The “clean car” rule, upheld earlier this year by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, takes effect in 2024 with the 2025 model year. 

The law requires manufacturers and dealers to supply more electric vehicles for the Minnesota marketplace.