Numbers on EVs vs. ICE vehicles. You pay more for U-hauls and rental cars so that others may spend less to ride the train up to Winter Park. A rarity: a Colorado Dem feels a press headwind.
Let's look at some numbers on EVs vs. Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles.
One of the common arguments made in favor of EV's is that, while they might be costly to buy, you will save on fuel and on maintenance.
I don't have much in the way of numbers on maintenance to share with you, but a reader recently sent me a link to the Anderson Economic Group's 2024 study on fuel cost comparisons for EVs vs. ICE vehicles.
Their numbers point to a reality more complicated than simply "expensive to buy, cheap to own".
Let's start with a look at what the study studied. Screenshot 1 gives an overview of their method. Note also, that the results come from a look at three states (Michigan, New York, and California): taxes and fees vary by state, so the authors used these three.
This points to the validity of their results and how you should understand them. I think, as I have said about other such studies, that the conclusions here would hold reasonably for Colorado. I wouldn't expect the predictions to be right to the nearest penny (or probably even whole dollar), but I would expect the patterns to be there.
The toplines of the summary are in screenshot 2.
Interesting patterns here. Clearly, if you're going to buy an EV, you should get a home charger and plan to do most of your charging there (this is especially the case if you own a luxury, or larger, EV).
Driving up fuel prices like CA has makes the cost differential disappear down to the midsize market for EV's vs. ICE. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have written that, our legislature might get ideas.
I don't think I fully thought it through, but the part about home ownership, home charging, and less cost didn't occur to me. That is, I don't think I would have connected up that if you had to rely on commercial chargers because you rented, you would be better off with a smaller ICE car.
Similar with pickups, especially if you want to do more than commute. I knew they wouldn't work in rural areas or if you hauled things, but I wouldn't have guessed that even in the city there are cases where an ICE truck would be a better fuel cost.
There's more in the report, they go more into depth on the different results by state. I'll leave you to look that over if you'd like. As I say above, the general patterns probably hold, but the specifics are shaky so I won't go into depth.
One interesting pattern emerges when you look at fuel price vs. time, however. Take a look at screenshot 3. The dotted lines here are for EV's and note how in all the graphs the dotted lines might shift up a bit with time, but note how stable (flat) they are with time. Certainly not the case with ICE costs.
Clearly oil (gasoline and diesel) prices are a lot more volatile than electricity.
I wonder if this pattern will hold as we continue to electrify more and more and then more to more renewables.
You pay more for Uhauls and rental cars so that others may spend less to ride the train up to Winter Park.
Last week, see the press release from Polis' office linked first below, our governor celebrated expanded service to Winter Park via Amtrak, with lower ticket prices.
In glowing terms our Governor and others (see the picture at the top of this post which comes from reporter Elliott Wenzler's Twitter account) tell us all the great things about having a train ride up into the mountains for skiing and etc.
The discounts sound pretty attractive too, quoting the press release:
"Winter Park Resort offers its expanded and improved WPE through cooperation and partnership with the State of Colorado and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Tickets for this year’s Winter Park Express range from $19 - $39 and children 2-12 are eligible for 50% off base fares. These fare prices are 43% lower than previous years’ fares and will be available beginning today."
How is it that you can get such deep, deep discounts on fares to ride up to your ski holiday in comfort?
Unmentioned, though hinted at, in the press release is the fact that you are the one who is subsidizing someone riding up to ski at a 43% discount.
Whether you ski or not, every time you rent a car or U-Haul in this state, thanks to the passage of SB24-184 (linked second below), a $3 daily fee charged to you goes to help fund this kind of munificence.
I can hear you already. If I rent a car to drive around while my car's in the shop in Pueblo, how does this $3 daily fee help me if it goes to a ski train? What does making it cheaper to get up to Winter Park have to do with my renting a U-Haul in Cortez?
I got you. Go to the third link below, the bill text, and read about all the wonderous benefits you get by subsidizing ski trains. The "Legislative Declaration" starts there on page 1. Be sure to thank the sponsors of this bill for thinking of you and allowing you to participate in such a beneficial (to you) transaction.
One big question remains. If the purpose of this subsidy is to get people on the train and off I-70, will it work as intended? I'll be curious to see and will try to follow up next Spring when the ski season has ended. Stay tuned.
https://www.colorado.gov/governor/news/winter-park-express-will-offer-expanded-service-2025-winter-season-including-2024-december
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-184
https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2024a_184_signed.pdf
Related:
From the "it warms my tired old heart" files.
Polis, at press conference for the subsidized ski train above, was asked again about Secretary of State Griswold and whether she should resign.
His response is in the screengrab from the Twitter account of the reporter who asked.
Ah, it makes my heart smile to see Democrats' bragging get interrupted by scandal involving Democrats.
I mean, we still have light years to go before the gap of asking everyone from a Republican congressional candidate on down to the Republican dog catcher candidate--for years after--about things like Jan 6th, but even tiny drips like this make my day.
Capacity and the single destination aside, who is taking this train? Likely only people who live near Union Station and are willing to walk with all their ski gear to take the train. For anyone else, what are they doing? Cramming onto a light rail or RTD bus before and after? Driving their car near Union, paying for parking, and hoping the car doesn’t get broken into all day? It does even get there at a reasonable hour to get first chair or hit fresh slopes after a storm. If anything it might be nice in spring when the slopes need a few hours in the morning to soften up.
I get the desire to not have to deal with traffic and weather to the slopes but this doesn’t seem to be a “solution” for most skiers.