Meanwhile, Nissan overtakes Tesla as most popular brand among EVs sold in Colorado
by Allen Best
Nissan overtook Tesla as the most popular brand of EV car in Colorado during the first quarter of 2025, a time when sales of EVs faltered from their torrid pace in the final months of 2024.
The Colorado Automobile Dealers Association reported that Nissan was responsible for 25.6% of all new electric vehicle sales during the first quarter of 2025 compared to 22.1% for Tesla. In the same quarter last year, 36.4% of all EVs sold in Colorado had been Teslas.
“An aging product lineup and backlash against Elon Musk’s political initiatives are key factors for the decline in Tesla BEV (battery electric vehicle) market share,” the auto dealers association reported in its quarterly newsletter, Colorado Auto Outlook.
While Tesla remained No. 2 among electric vehicles in Colorado, other brands surged in sales. Starting from much smaller bases, the percentage of Subaru EV sales rose 55.2%, Nissan 37.1%, and Hyundai 15.9%.
Colorado’s offered tax credits of $5,000 in 2024 for EV purchases, tops in the country. This was in addition to the federal and other incentives. The incentives produced a rush in late 2024 of buyers wanting to take maximum advantage. An all-time – and nation-high — 24.7% of all new car sales during the final quarter of 2024 were for EVs.
Empire Lakewood Nissan, a dealership located on West Colfax, was the top-selling Nissan dealership in Colorado. It was also No. 3 in the country.
The tax credits, said sales manager Josh Skwarek, “were the sole reason we were No. 1.” Without the price reductions, EVs remain uncompetitive with traditional gas-powered cars.
Ariya has been most popular Nissan model. A bigger SUV, it competes with the Tesla Model Y. The Ariyas constituted 7.4% of all EV sales in Colorado during the first quarter of 2025 compared to 7.3% for Tesla Model Y’s.
Colorado led the nation in percentage sales of EVs in the last quarter of 2024 but fell behind California, the customary leader, in the first quarter after Colorado’s incentives dropped to $3,500.
Chart from Colorado Auto Outlook, the quarterly newsletter from the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.
Still, the Lakewood dealer has sold 300 to 400 EVs since January, said Swarek. EVs have become far and away the most-purchased car at the dealer, constituting 85% of all sales in most months and 95% during the surge in late 2024. Swarek said he believes in the product. He drives an EV, as do all the others on the staff and his family members, too. That includes his sister and parents.
Most telling is that even with the slowdown, EV sales were still far ahead of where they were a year ago: 13.8% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to this year’s 21.1. The percentage of hybrids and plug-in hybrids also grew.
Car sales altogether started out strong in Colorado during 2025 but the auto dealers noted a “heightened uncertainty” as a result of tariffs announced by President Donald Trump. The auto dealers outlined three scenarios based on different assumptions, with the most optimistic forecast being a 4% increase in sales from 2024, but with the other two scenarios producing sales declines of 1.7% or 7.7%.
Colorado has a goal of having 940,000 registered EVs on its roads by 2030. Do actions and possible actions by President Donald Trump threaten to slow this trend? Trump, almost immediately after his inauguration in January, cut off funding for installation of EV chargers. Colorado had expected $57 million. The funding freeze put 23 projects in Colorado – from very rural areas to the state’s cities – on hold.
“We were looking at over $50 million over five years of available (funding) for EV charging. Assuming that the federal government honors the contracts that we’ve already signed, I think we would be looking at about $17 million of projects actually being federally funded. The rest of the money is totally unclear,” Will Toor, director of the Colorado Energy Office, told Denver’s Channel 7 TV station in February.
Travis Madsen, transportation program manager at Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, an advocate organization, said he is confident that the super economics of EVs will win regardless of decisions in Washington D.C.
Colorado’s state government, working with electrical utilities and others, will continue to invest in the charging infrastructure to make travelers comfortable with purchases of EV.
“We will have to replace those federal dollars. The stations will happen a little more slowly,” he said. “But we are not dependent upon the federal government in doing this. It would be a lot easier if they were helping.”
As is, commercial fast-charging stations can be found across much of Colorado, although not with the reliability of gas stations.
“You can’t just assume there will be a station at every interstate exit,” said Madsen. “You have to have a plan before you leave your house.”
A larger issue may be whether the $7,500 federal tax credit for EV purchase goes away, as Elon Musk has advocated. Undoubtedly the loss of the tax incentives will slow sales in Colorado and almost everywhere else. Analysis by SWEEP — the acronym for Madsen’s organization — concluded that EVs will remain the superior long-term investment in Colorado and other states in the Colorado River Basin that it monitors. The margins, however, will be shaved.
In an analysis posted April 4, Madsen and three SWEEP colleagues found that drivers in Southwestern states could save lots of money over the lifetime of the EV, in the case of Nevada $30,000. Electric pickup trucks provide the greatest broad savings across the region, an average $28,000. This is based on 200,000 miles of driving.
EVs continue to have generally higher up-front costs when compared to similar gas-burning models, even after the tax credits have been applied. Fuel savings and reduced maintenance expense – because EVs have few moving parts – almost always outweigh the up-front costs. The lower fuel costs assume drivers charge their EVs during off-peak times when electricity costs are lower. Not all utilities, however, offer discounted rates for off-peak charging.
Nevada EV drivers have the greatest access to cost savings, because of high prices of gasoline and low costs of electricity. Those in Wyoming would have the thinnest margins of advantage.
But again, what if the $7,500 federal tax credit were repealed, as Elon Musk has advocated? That increased up-front price of EV shaves its financial advantage.
In Colorado), an EV sedan purchased in 2025 with the existing federal tax credit in place, the EV would enjoy a 13% advantage over a combustion-engine vehicle. If the tax incentive goes away, that advantage narrows to 4%. For pickup trucks in Colorado, the savings of an EV of 26% would decline to 19%
And in New Mexico, the cost advantage of a EV sedan would decline from 11% with the federal tax credit to 2% without. For a pickup truck, the advantage would decline from 25% to 17%.
In Nevada, the existing advantage of the EV of 28% would decline to 21%. Only in Wyoming would a combustion engine vehicle enjoy the advantage if federal EV tax credits go away.
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This statement needs clarification: “Without the price reductions, EVs remain uncompetitive with traditional gas-powered cars.” Prima facie it’s absurd. Total cost of ownership over their lifetime can’t be crystal-balled. Perhaps this statement is on purchased price basis? Then you are comparing apples & oranges. Without all those moving parts the cost of maintenance will be lower; the cost of electricity is decreasing while the cost of discovering, drilling, pumping, piping & refining petroleum, a finite resource, will increase.