Location: Brimley, Michigan
Fleet type: Light-duty electric vehicles
Narrative: Bay Mills Indian Community (BMIC) purchased 2 new Subaru electric vehicles (EVs) in 2025 as a part of their mission to support sustainability, the environment, and their way of life. BMIC’s government was formed in 1936 and its main reservation is approximately 20 miles west of Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan including the administrative building where the EVs reside for the community’s use.
The BMIC fleet, both electric and non-electric, serves tribal members by providing transportation for healthcare appointments, snow plowing, and transit between Brimley and Sault Ste. Marie. Administrative staff primarily use the EVs to travel for general tribal business and BMIC hopes to expand their use of EVs at their health center and for general` maintenance. Planning Manager Brianna Gunka notes that, “We recognize that transportation is a large part of emissions and finding ways to improve in that sector is very important.”
By purchasing EVs, BMIC expands on goals and priorities laid out in their 2022 “Green Community Assessment and Recommendations” which also includes initiatives such as renewables, weatherization initiatives, and a solar farm. All sustainability efforts reflect their mission: “Mino Bimadziwiin, “Good Life”, guides Gnoozhekaaning, “Place of the Pike”, or Bay Mills Indian Community to preserve and to promote the sovereignty, culture, and prosperity for our citizens, community, and employees to the benefit, of present and future generations.”
Incorporating EVs into the BMIC fleet also continues their electrification efforts from installing chargers at both their administrative building and resort. With federal funding provided through the Electric Nation project led by Native Sun and supported by Michigan Clean Cities (MICC), a level 2 charger was installed at the administrative building allowing convenient charging for electric fleet vehicles. A bank of mostly level 2 chargers was also installed from state and federal funding, including through MICC’s affiliated partner NextEnergy, at the resort but became defunct due to the operators going out of business. Although the tribe was disheartened, they are pushing to recommission these chargers due to the traffic they have experienced with charging needs. “It’s an amenity that needs to be offered in every community,” said Gunka.
Outputs & Outcomes: Bay Mills Indian Community’s fleet electrification of their first 2 EVs supports multiple outcomes for the tribe.
- Reduces vehicle emissions for employees specifically and community members generally to breathe cleaner air and protect the environment.
- Saves money for the tribe by reducing refueling costs for vehicles and labor spent charging immediately outside the administrative building rather than driving to a gas station.
- Creates further demand for installing EV chargers in the community to attract and benefit visitors.
- Establishes familiarity and desire for further fleet electrification for more departments and different vehicles such as transit vans or buses.
Best Practices & Lessons Learned: The most important lesson BMIC learned is to start small. Fleet electrification involves balancing many factors and interacting with unfamiliar technology can be challenging as well. Leveraging smaller opportunities, such as publicly funded grants, can spark interest to begin learning and snowball into larger efforts with high impact for the community. “You’ve got to start somewhere so just try leveraging resources available. Leveraging partners through nonprofits and the state have been really great resources and if you can leverage those resources to get started I think that’s huge,” Gunka shares.
About Bay Mills Indian Community
The Bay Mills Indian Community is a federally recognized Indian Tribe located on the southern shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula. A prophecy instructing the people to go “where food grows on water” illustrates how the Ojibwe came to inhabit the Great Lakes Region and why their descendants still live here today. BMIC is one of the four original tribes in Michigan and was granted a federal Corporate Charter under Section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act on June 18, 1934. As a sovereign nation, BMIC is fully responsible for its operations as a government unit, including public safety/law enforcement, judicial system, health care, and economic development. There are 2,406 enrolled tribal members, approximately 1,416 living in the service area of Chippewa, Luce, and Mackinaw counties, and 781 living directly on the reservation.
About Drive Electric Michigan
Drive Electric Michigan (DEMI) is dedicated to increasing electric vehicle adoption in Michigan by engaging with policymakers, utilities, dealerships, and most importantly consumers. Michigan Clean Cities (MICC), alongside our affiliate NextEnergy, leads DEMI by leveraging Michigan’s mobility ecosystem to reduce barriers to EV adoption for fleets and community members. DEMI is an affiliated state program of the DRIVE Electric USA initiative developing state-based DRIVE Electric programs across the U.S. that engage individuals, utilities, legislators, dealerships, and others toward removing adoption barriers and accelerating plug-in electric vehicle use.
