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Xcel runs out of EV rebates in bad news/good news for Colorado culture and economic switch

Energy workers stand while chatting in front of an electric energy charging station.
Michael Booth
/
The Colorado Sun
An Xcel Energy representative explains wall-mounted EV chargers and the new Xcel subsidies for them at the Denver Auto Show on Sept. 17, 2021.

Do you want the good news first, or the bad?

Let’s start with the bad: Xcel Energy has spent the $5 million set aside for new and used electric vehicle purchase rebates for income-qualified Colorado customers, leaving 100 people with rebate approvals but no checks in the mail.

And Xcel doesn’t plan to ask the Public Utilities Commission for more rebate money, which is funded by the company’s 1.5 million Colorado energy customers under a system that needs PUC approval.

So what’s the good news?

Let’s try: Colorado EV shoppers snapped up 1,176 Xcel rebates for a PUC-approved total of $5 million, many of them in a 2024 sales push by automakers striving to meet customer demand and the mandates of states like Colorado requiring them to stock higher percentages of EVs for sale to help clean the air.

To read the entire story, visit The Colorado Sun.

Michael Booth is The Sun’s environment writer, and co-author of The Sun’s weekly climate and health newsletter The Temperature. He and John Ingold host the weekly SunUp podcast on The Temperature topics every Thursday.