Mustang Mach‑E GT Review & Saving Money with Xcel Energy

The Mustang Mach‑E Review & Saving Money with Xcel Energy

Mon­i­ca Rosen­bluth, Asso­ciate Prod­uct Port­fo­lio Man­ag­er of Xcel Energy’s Elec­tric Vehi­cle Divi­sion, spoke with us about her newest elec­tric vehi­cle pur­chase, the Ford Mus­tang Mach‑E GT. She pur­chased it as soon as it became avail­able last year, and received her car on Octo­ber 14th. This is her first elec­tric vehi­cle, but she’s been want­i­ng to go elec­tric for a while.

Mon­i­ca decid­ed on the Mus­tang Mach‑E because of its fast, sporty nature and func­tion­al­i­ty as a fam­i­ly car. It’s also eli­gi­ble for up to $10,000 in com­bined fed­er­al and state tax cred­its, a huge chunk of sav­ings that man­u­fac­tur­ers Tes­la and GM can­not redeem any­more due to a vehi­cle sales cap. How­ev­er, incen­tives for these man­u­fac­tur­ers are still up for con­sid­er­a­tion as part of the Build Back Bet­ter bill. Switch­ing to elec­tric was part of Monica’s fam­i­ly con­scious effort to do bet­ter for the envi­ron­ment. The Mach‑E emits zero tailpipe emis­sions as it is driven.

Mon­i­ca and her fam­i­ly often road trip long dis­tances, their next trip planned for Taos, New Mex­i­co. While she hasn’t yet test­ed a long dri­ve, she has dri­ven through the moun­tains fre­quent­ly and has even dri­ven through a snow­storm. Mon­i­ca was sur­prised by how heavy the car felt and how well it han­dled in the snow. “It exceed­ed expec­ta­tions,” she remarked of its dri­ving qual­i­ty — and she’s not the only one who loves her car. She’s received a lot of pos­i­tive reac­tions from fel­low dri­vers and passers­by when she parks in public.

cause Mon­i­ca usu­al­ly charges at home, she decid­ed to upgrade her charg­ing to Lev­el 2, and recent­ly applied for Xcel Energy’s Home Wiring Rebate. When approved, she’ll get a $500 rebate that will help off­set the costs to upgrade her home wiring. She’s also been charg­ing dur­ing off- peak hours (9pm — 6am) as part of Xcel Energy’s Opti­mize Your Charge pro­gram, which rewards dri­vers with a $50 annu­al cred­it for participation.

We also spoke with Mon­i­ca about Xcel’s deal­er­ship net­work. Xcel Ener­gy part­ners with deal­er­ships across Col­orado to edu­cate them about EV pro­grams and rebates in order to help explain EV options to cus­tomers. This makes it eas­i­er for cus­tomers who qual­i­fy for Xcel’s EV rebates to get instant cash back on the spot, or apply for the rebate after pur­chas­ing an EV at a non-net­worked deal­er­ship. Xcel Ener­gy also helps adver­tise addi­tion­al incen­tives that their net­worked deal­ers offer on their web­site. To find a deal­er in their net­work, go here.