By Rick Manning — The bad news just keeps coming for the Obama Administration’s push to force electric vehicles on the public with the revelation that the much loved Tesla line up of vehicles have a singular problem — they become bricks if the battery runs out.
That’s right, the $100,000+ Tesla vehicle reportedly has at least five instances out of the mere 2,200 in production where the vehicle ceased to function when the battery ran down to a zero charge. The Tesla didn’t just need a recharge like a cell phone, no, the $32,000 battery needs to be replaced entirely when it runs out – at the owners expense.
Of course the $32,000 replacement charge does not include transporting the now inert “vehicle” whose wheels no longer move, or the labor to replace the battery. The total estimated cost to the Tesla customer is $40,000, because in spite of the bumper to bumper warranty, the battery running out of juice is considered the customers fault.
Ordinarily, a car built for the eclectic wealthy class would not matter, but the Tesla is different.
The Tesla Corporation was singled out by Obama’s Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency as a company of the future, during a regulatory “study” conducted to determine the volume of vehicles manufacturers would produce in 2025.
The study was part of the EPA and Transportation’s dramatic change to the nation’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard (CAFÉ) which dictate the average fleet gas mileage requirements that each automobile manufacturing company must meet.
The new standards are set to rise to 54.5 miles per gallon in the next thirteen years and the Tesla was at least a part of the Obama social engineers plan to force industry to conform to the new law.
Tesla is important because in many respects, it just might be the last solely electric car company standing with the announcement that the much hoped for Fisker Automotive has run into severe financial problems with layoffs announced at two of their facilities. This, in spite of already receiving $193 million of taxpayer funded loan out of a promised $529 million.
Fisker, which is developing another $100,000 car for the masses using taxpayer dollars, is under Department of Energy scrutiny because they have missed development and sales milestones. Ironically, the Fisker vehicle is called the Karma.
The fallout of the pending Fisker failure is that taxpayer dollar funded electric fuel cell developer A123 is now also in danger of failing due to its reliance on their Fisker contract. For those without enough taxpayer heartburn, A123 has received a cool $249 million from the Obama Administration’s crack Energy Department venture socialism division.
But back to the brickworks at Tesla Corporation, the recipient of $465 million in taxpayer dollars from the Obama Administration, is attempting to change the game by introducing a new vehicle model which can be purchased for under $65,000.
Of course, the car still costs $40,000 to repair if you let the charge run down, so buyer beware.
By the way, how many Tesla’s did the Obama Administration guess would be produced and purchased by the ever environmentally concerned American public in 2025?
31,974. That is a lot of very expensive bricks.
Rick Manning is the Director of Communications of Americans for Limited Government.
