by Paul Jacob
Next year, if all goes well, a new sports car hits the market. Not only is it brand new, its brand is new: Tesla Motors. The car itself, the Roadster 100, sounds like a marvel. Touted to go from 0 to 60 in four seconds, the car is now in testing.
And at no point in that acceleration, or in deceleration, or while cruising, will it spew out fumes. No carbon monoxide. No carbon dioxide. No sulfur, tar, nicotine.
The car is electric. And it will be able to drive about 250 miles per charge.
Electric automotive technology sure has come a long way in recent years, the sorry fiasco of GM's foray into the field notwithstanding. Several car companies are developing plug-in hybrids, hybrids that you can plug in for recharge, to cut down further on the gas you burn.
But the Roadster 100 is neither a hybrid nor hybrid-hybrid.
Too good to be true? Well, it is too good to be inexpensive. Price tag? $100,000. To order yours now, plunk down a $75,000 down payment.
This is all good news, not bad. Tesla's Roadster may sound uneconomical, but if the car proves its hype, the technology will become more affordable as mass production meets increased demand.
That's the way of progress. Early acquirers of DVD players in effect subsidized the development of that technology for the rest of us.
Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org.