| Through an odd set of coincidences my dream | | | | suggestion I made a pact with myself to play it |
| car was eligible for huge tax rebates so I | | | | cool and not make a big fuss when the car |
| “had” to take a look. The Tesla Roadster | | | | accelerated. At least that was the plan; which |
| is an all electric car produced by a small company | | | | lasted for less than 2 seconds. I didn’t even |
| in California called Tesla Motors. It is one of the | | | | get the pedal to the floor when I blurted out |
| first production scale electric cars available in the | | | | “Holy *$% that’s fast!” Now I have |
| U.S. It is expensive by everyone’s standards | | | | been in some fast cars before but this was |
| but so is a Porsche, or any other high-end sports | | | | almost unnatural. There was zero delay between |
| car. | | | | pushing down the petal and being thrown forward |
| Given that I own two hybrids you would think | | | | at unbelievable speeds. You have to do some |
| that I feel pretty good about my carbon footprint | | | | quick planning with a car this fast because you |
| concerning transportation but it would be better | | | | are on top of the car in front of you in no time |
| to have one less car, take the bus more or | | | | at all. |
| better yet own some sort of electric car that | | | | In the end, even with the huge incentives, I |
| doesn’t burn gas at all. | | | | decided that saving for my kids’ college was |
| I guess nobody ever thought electric cars would | | | | more important, but I did walk away knowing |
| materialize or be considered luxury, so when the | | | | that the future of electric cars looks bright. If you |
| State of Colorado wrote the rebate tax code | | | | consider acceleration, top speed, travel distance, |
| they probably didn’t expect people making | | | | cost, MPH and fun as some of the major |
| claims for an electric car in the amount of a | | | | categories people consider when deciding to |
| $42,000 credit! Add $7,500 from the federal | | | | purchase a car, this one hits 50% of the |
| government and you could see why I was more | | | | categories out of the park. Cost and traveling |
| than a little interested. | | | | distance are big barriers. The car can go at least |
| When I went to test-drive the car, the weather | | | | a couple hundred of miles on a charge. Its top |
| was lousy due to the fact that a massive snow | | | | speed is only 125 MGH, but I am guessing that |
| storm was on its way, so time was short. With | | | | 125 MPH is fast enough for most people. |
| the sales rep in the passenger’s seat I drove | | | | Remember that nobody thought people would |
| the car around the block. It took a while to get | | | | sacrifice music quality for portability yet digital |
| used to how the car handled given that it is a | | | | music players have dominated retail over the last |
| true sports car. After a couple of minutes my | | | | couple of years, so a couple of inconveniences will |
| sales rep copilot suggested that I let the car drop | | | | likely be overlooked by those purchasing this car. |
| down to 20 MPH and then punch it. It didn’t | | | | Being green with an electric sports car like this |
| take much convincing because no matter who | | | | one makes you feel kind of guilty because it is so |
| you are that is the very first thought that runs | | | | easy. Maybe if more products were as good as |
| through your head when you sit in a car like this. | | | | this car, making changes to more |
| The moment before I took her up on the | | | | environmentally-friendly products would be easy. |