The Tesla Roadster is a sleek electric sports car that proves an electric car can be blindingly fast. In an odd tax code quirk, the car is also a heck of a deal for buyers who live in Colorado.
Electric car and high performance are not two phrases that usually go together. If they did, Ferrari and Lamborghini would be building electric cars! Well, Tesla is a company in California that begs to differ on the subject. Instead of agreeing with others, Tesla has produced the Roadster, a car that looks like a Lotus and is blindingly quick. How quick? How about zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds? As hard as it is to believe, the car runs entirely on electricity with nary a drop of petroleum to be found.
As an exotic sports car, the Tesla matches up with other exotic gas fueled cars in one particular area. It ain't cheap! You can expect to pay $109,000 retail to pick up one of these babies. This admittedly is much cheaper than your average Ferrari, but it is more expensive than a Lotus. This price tag, however, comes with a major caveat for people living in Colorado.
As you might expect, Colorado is a forward looking state when it comes to the environment. To motivate citizens of the state to go green, the government has passed a host of financial incentives for doing so. The two key ones in this situation are a tax credit for zero emission cars and another for buying a green car. In a quirk, the green car credit is a percentage of the price of the fossil fuel version. Since there is no Tesla gas powered car, the Lotus Esprit is used.
The calculations are more than my little mind can handle, but the end result is the buyers of Tesla Roadsters get a tax credit for…$42,083! Yes, $42,000!
This has taxpayers in a rage as you might imagine. Well, not the Coloradoans who've bought a Tesla. No, they are oddly quiet! Regardless, a move is under way to slash this credit in 2010. Anyone who buys a Tesla before December 31, 2009 can still get it, but not afterwards.
Ah, who thought going green would be such a good financial move?
Dirk Gibson writes for
DCJAutoParts.com - where you can find quality
Tesla accessories at low, low prices.
