Shopping For An Affordable EV In Colorado
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Last Updated on: 17th August 2025, 12:40 am
In this article, I wanted to see how electric vehicles (EV) were selling in one of the hottest markets in the US, Colorado. They have a $3,500 instant tax credit for vehicles under $80,000, and you get an extra $2,500 if the price is below $35,000. They even have a “Cash for Clunkers” program (they call it Vehicle Exchange Colorado) that gives you up to $6,000 more off an EV purchase if you retire a gas car more than 12 years old and meet income limitations. Plus, there’s still the quickly expiring $7,500 US Federal Tax Credit. Add these four up and some people are getting between $11,000 and $19,500 back on their EV purchases or leases! I am visiting my daughter this weekend in Colorado, and I wanted to do some in-person research. I knew I couldn’t research all the top vehicles here, so I’ll focus on Tesla, Chevrolet, Hyundai, and Ford.
Tesla Production & Sales Look Very Strong
Tesla looks to be going all out to have a record quarter in vehicle sales. On the recent earning release, we found Tesla had unexpectedly high sales and even higher production. This means they increased inventory. This is probably because they anticipate a rush in demand from buyers eager to buy before the federal tax credit expires. There are also rumors that Tesla has increased production — both production of the models they sell today and also production of the 4 models they don’t sell yet (the more affordable Model Y, the larger YL, the Model Y Performance, and the Model 3+). So, if these cars weren’t selling, I’d expect there would be a lot of inventory available on their website. I looked in the Denver area and they only had 9 Model Ys. Furthermore, when you click on them, only 3 are in stock; the others are “arriving soon.” They don’t have any of the base models with the base color and wheels. They aren’t offering any inventory discounts, but they are still offering 3.49% financing.
I’m not sure how accurate this website from Norway is (since Tesla has been cracking down on those that screen-scrape their site and aggregate the data), but it appears that inventory is going down. This is for all models in the USA, but it showed that Model Ys only have 205 cars in stock in the whole country, while there are 1,111 Cybertrucks available.
I didn’t visit the Tesla delivery center today, but all indications are that sales are very strong. In the 4th quarter, things could be very rough for Tesla if they have trouble ramping up their new models, or if they can ramp them up but people just don’t want them. On the other hand, they plan to use a lot of vehicles to launch their Robotaxi service across the US, a plan that admittedly has a high risk of slipping into next year if Tesla’s track record on autonomy is considered. Two years ago, I thought it would take years for FSD to be working without a driver. I don’t know if I was too optimistic or pessimist. I think you could argue either case.
Chevrolet
I went to Fowler Chevrolet and asked about the base Equinox. The salesperson told me they were sold out and had a waiting list of about 50 people! Since the base model is just under $35,000 ($34,995), it qualifies for the extra $2,500 Colorado tax credit. That means you can buy it for a little over $20,000! No wonder there is a waiting list! I was impressed with the Equinox a year ago, but this base model is a stripped down unit (I don’t expect leather seats at that price!).
The salesperson said they had some Blazers available, but that they were close to $60,000. I like the Blazer, but even with the credits, it isn’t worth double the money for a similarly sized vehicle. I expect Chevy will have a big drop in sales when the tax credit ends, but if they can get the new Bolt out with the LFP battery pack and the car is built in the US (avoiding the Trump tariffs), they could recover quickly. But the Bolt is a much smaller vehicle than the Equinox, and for some, they won’t like that.
Hyundai
I went into this dealership thinking maybe the Kona EV (which starts under $35,000) would be the hot seller based on my Chevy experience.
But after talking to a salesperson who said the Kona has only 200 miles of range, while the IONIQ 5 models have between 259 and 318 miles of range, have much more room, and are much nicer, I focused on the IONIQ 5. I took it for a short test drive (it was great and had one-pedal driving). As you can see, the lease deal is very aggressive. If you take the $19,350 Hyundai rebate off the $55,000 price, it is a lot more than the similarly sized Equinox, but it is a lot better equipped also (comparable to the Equinox LT2 or LT3 trims). With a new US-based factory (protecting Hyundai from the Trump tariffs), I think their sales will soften a bit, but Hyundai and Kia (along with Tesla) have always been quite nimble at adjusting to changing market conditions.
You can see they really promote the IONIQ brand prominently.
Ford
I was quite disappointed by what I saw at the Ford dealer. When you walk in, they show a bunch of gas guzzling muscle cars.
Then they show a 100-year-old Ford truck. Nothing about new technology.
I asked the salesperson about the Mustang Mach-E, and he said he had a great discount on a used one. The least expensive one he showed me was almost $53,000 and he didn’t know about any incentives. It doesn’t qualify for any federal incentives and only gets $3,500 from Colorado. Since it is made in Mexico (like the Equinox), Ford is paying a 25% Trump tariff on this model. I would much rather have either the spartan Equinox for a lot less money or the well equipped IONIQ 5, Equinox, or Tesla Model Y for $10,000 less. I think Ford won’t have a big rush of people rushing in to buy the Mustang Mach-E, since nothing is expiring for it this quarter. On the bright side, it will be more competitive when its major competitors lose their $7,500 tax credit.
Conclusion
Tesla’s short-term future is dependent on how the rollout of their four new models in the 4th quarter goes, and longer term if and when they get Full Self Driving to work in personal vehicles and their robotaxi service. Tesla’s dedicated Cybercab, made using their unboxed process, will likely either change everything or be a disappointment.
Chevrolet looks like they are doing three things to be more competitive: moving to LFP batteries, introducing a whole line of more affordable EVs, and moving production to the US to protect them from tariffs. That should work fairly well. They may have more aggressive plans that they haven’t announced yet.
Hyundai is also doing the same three things as Chevy: working on LFP, introducing more models, and moving more production to the US. I think they will do as well as Chevy, maybe better.
Ford recently announced the most aggressive plan, but it also leaves the company with a 2-year gap where they don’t have much to compete with Tesla, Chevy, and Hyundai.
If you want to take advantage of my Tesla referral link to get up to $1000 off a new Tesla vehicle, here’s the link: https://ts.la/paul92237 — but as I have said before, if another owner helped you more, please use their link instead of mine. If you want to learn more about Tesla’s new referral program (August 2024), Chris Boylan has written an excellent article on it.
Disclosure: I am a shareholder in Tesla [TSLA], BYD [BYDDY], XPeng [XPEV], and several ARK ETFs. But I offer no investment advice of any sort here.
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