So what did your $465 million taxpayer loan to One Percenter Elon Musk get you? Another six-figure toy for President Obama’s rich West Coast friends.<\/p>\n
Musk’s Tesla auto company is rolling out its first copies of the Energy Department-financed, $97,700, 300-mile-range Model S electric sedan for journalist review. (Make that $90,200 \u2014 you are also paying to give each posh buyer a $7,500 tax credit.)<\/p>\n
“This is one amazing car. I mean, hard-core amazing. But first and foremost, gentle reader, it goes like the very stink of hell. Fifty-to-100-mph acceleration in the $97,900 Signature Performance model I drove is positively Lambo-like and. . . .” Okay, okay, easy boy. That’s\u00a0Dan Neil of the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>\u00a0fawning over Obama’s Car of the Future. Forgive him, that’s the way auto journalists write about the expensive gee-whiz toys they get to test for free.<\/p>\n And who can doubt the thrill of driving a Tesla, or Lamborghini, or Mercedes, or Porsche? But shouldn’t journalists also be asking why on earth taxpayers should be subsidizing purchases of these rare chariots?<\/p>\n It never occurs to Neil. He’s drunk the green Kool-aid. He’s saving the planet. He’s driving the future.<\/p>\n Actually, he’s driving the past. Electrics have been around for over a century. They’ve always been cool, torquey, and easy to drive. They just aren’t as practical as their gas-engined brethren. Remember that $97,700 price tag?<\/p>\n And, Neil’s hyperventilating aside, this is no Lamborghini. Yes, its 0-60 mph time is an impressive 4.4 seconds compared to a $180,000 Lambo Gallardo’s 3.9. And its speed to 130 mph? Well. the Gallardo gets there in 11 seconds, but the Tesla, well. . . 130 mph is as fast as it will go. Meanwhile, the Lambo keeps unwinding to 200 mph (a number six-figure super-car buyers tend to obsess about) and its svelte 3,200-pound svelte chassis will run circles around the 4,600-pound Model S, and . . .<\/p>\n Not a fair comparison, you say? The Model S is a four-door and the Lambo a two-door? Well, okay (even though Neil picked this fight!) \u2014 let’s consider the four-door, gas-powered, 400-mile-range Porsche Panamera, available for the same $95 grand. Acceleration times are the same and the 4,200-pound Porsche will take you to 180 mph.<\/p>\n Rare air, I agree \u2014 but if taxpayers are going to finance luxury car companies run by eccentric millionaires, shouldn’t they be competitive?<\/p>\n The Tesla S is a technical marvel, no doubt (“the SP package is equipped with a high-capacity drive inverter and twin 10-kilowatt-hour charging inverters for rapid recharge,” thrills Mr. Neil). But\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0luxury cars are technical marvels. The question is whether it can compete in the market. And the problem with the Model S is the problem with all Democratic green dreams from Solyndra to Fisker to algae- – they are political products (bought by rich folks for political cache) with no more future in the market than the\u00a0fabulous, 200-mile-range 1910 Detroit electric Victoria<\/a>.<\/p>\n