Solar Powered Brammo Empulse in Colorado
Not only does Colorado offer some of the best tax incentives for electric vehicles in the country, but it also has a great climate for solar power! Depending on where you live in Colorado, you may have up to 330 days of sun per year to take advantage of your solar investment. With current tax incentives and rebates available in Colorado, your complete solar PV system could pay for itself in as little as 10 years! If you offset the costs of gas with an EV (Like a Brammo Empulse or Enertia) the system could pay for itself in less than half 1/4th that time!
Now lets look at the numbers to see what we will pay out of pocket and after incentives for the Solar / Brammo Empulse, carbon free combo in Colorado.
Disclaimer: Obviously I am in no way WHATSOEVER a tax professional. The following numbers are estimates based on my own research. Your actual numbers may vary, so I suggest you do your own research.
| Item: | Out of pocket costs: | With available tax Incentives: |
| Brammo Empulse 8.0 | $11,995.00 | 10% Federal Tax Credit (-1,199.50)
85% Colorado Tax Rebate of Incremental Costs (-$5096.60) |
| 0.9 kW Solar PV System | $3,534.00 | 30% Federal Tax Credit (-1,060.00)
$2,474.00 |
| Totals | $15,529.00 | $8172.90 |
Your estimated total costs after tax incentives for carbon free transportation in CO is only $8172.90! How cool is that!
Check out the Electric Motorcycle Price & TCO Calculator and the Solar PV System ROI with EV Calculator to get an idea of how much you could save going carbon free in your state!
PS: In case you are wondering, EmpulseBuyer already has a 3kW solar PV system. That’s much more than enough to charge my future Empulse by itself, but only just enough to power my xbox360 and the rest of the house. Since the inverter I have is capable of handling up to 5kW I plan to add another 1kW to the system once I get my Empulse!
I found your site through your comment on autobloggreen. How much information have you been able to gather about the Colorado Alternative Fuel tax credit?
This seems to be the sum and total amount of official information I’ve been able to dig up so far:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1251650070498&ssbinary=true
It looks like the amount of the possible tax credit hasn’t been established yet. Do you have any educated guesses on how much the credit will be?
Also, did they give you a shipping estimate? How much?
I played with your payback calculators, but I wasn’t sure what tax rate to use. It looks like we might both be in Douglas County, so I was wondering what rate you use?
Thanks! (and awesome site!)
Hey Paul! Yeah I am in Jefferson county but very close to Douglas county. I know my taxes add up to 7.6% which is County + RTD + City + State. I am not sure what the shipping rate will be but I would assume somewhere around 500 dollars or so, maybe less. The Empulse is not available yet but when it is (next year) there may be a local Best Buy store that sells the Empulse and shipping may not be an issue, who knows. As far as the Colorado tax break goes, it is calculated as 85% of the difference in price between an EV and a comparable ICE vehicle. See the following example: http://www.empulsebuyer.com/tcoCalculator.php?sTR=7.6&fTR=1&sTI=CO&eID=2&kWhC=0.11&eRng=80&iceID=10&msrp=5999&gC=2.89&mpg=45&oCC=40&oCI=7500&sC=550&sI=15000
The comp commonly used for the Empulse is a Suzuki SV650. The tax break maxes out at $6000.00 dollars: http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/laws/law/CO/5246
But keep in mind, I am no tax expert. Colorado is known for having very generous tax discounts for EVs though.