Expensive way to save on gas
Fine. Americans love another museum destination. But they worship their innovators (look at Henry Ford: the guy was an anti-Semite, he was Big Brother's father when it came to meddling in employees' private lives, and he had a soft spot for Hitler, yet he's still revered as an American hero). So I was surprised to read Daniel Lyons, Newsweek's technology columnist, heaping scorn on Tesla Motors, the private-venture company building an all-electric car that gets 200 miles to the charge and goes from 0 to 60 in four seconds -- faster than a Porsche. There's been infighting at the company, a lawsuit here and there, money ran short, the car is over budget -- yet the company is producing 10 cars a week and has 1,200 orders for a vehicle that costs $109,000. For a prototype to be selling at barely twice the cost of a luxury internal-combustion-engine clunker is hugely promising. So why the scorn, so untimely when Barack Obama and green gurus keep echoing the public's craving for the next automotive breakthrough that reduces oil's tyranny? If anything, Tesla-like projects are where the government should be pouring its billions.
Yet the country's mindset is nowhere near that sort of investment. Lyons' arguments are striking for their familiarity: They're bleed-through from the anti-government rhetoric that for the past three decades has been poisoning discussions of how to move the country forward. It doesn't matter that Tesla is one of those potentially revolutionizing innovations. "It's late and over budget, has gone through loads of redesigns, still has bugs and, at $109,000, costs more than originally planned," in Lyons' condemning words. This for a startup getting no government backing.Pierre Tristam | 11.16.08
Also see:
Treehugger on Tesla Motors
Obama’s odious appointments
Real cost of the bailout
Citigroup collapse may signal worldwide shutdown
Bank bailout most expensive purchase in US history
Zombie economics
Prediction for 2009: US to split into six parts
posted by Tom Nadeau at 7:39 AM
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