You have absolutely got to love a roadster, right? And, personally, I fell in love at first sight with the 2009 Tesla Roadster. This car is powered electrically. It has two seats, an open top, and it is rear drive. There is no internal combustion engine, so it has no need of gasoline. Thus, of course, it will not produce any emissions either.

It has lithium ion batteries and — get this — you can use the electricity right in your house to recharge the batteries! In fact, thanks to the option of a Mobile Connector, you can even get a charge from any 110v or 220v electrical outlets, if one is available.

For a clean car, this is a hot ride — and by all available accounts, it has great fuel economy as well!

Though it costs a little over one hundred thousand dollars, it really is well worth the amount.

According to the recently concluded conference on the Stimulus Bill, everything pretty much stays the same. There are tax credits added for plug-ins that won’t be out until the next two years or so, but no tax credits are mentioned for the purchase of hybrid vehicles available today.

Otherwise known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, this stimulus bill is worth $787 billion all in all. Presently, it gives up to $2500 tax credit for buyers of low-speed new electric vehicles. However, this has been criticized as a “pork barrel” for golf carts.

On the plus side, however, it allows new car buyers this year to deduct the local and state taxes paid on their vehicle purchases from their annual federal taxes. While $1.7 billion is allocated to fund this tax deduction, this move received a lukewarm reaction from consumers, probably because they won’t be seeing the figures realized until the end of 2009.

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Car importers question the US Senate’s proposal to give $10,000 credit to people who would hand over their old motor vehicles in exchange for newer, more fuel efficient models.

This proposal is tagged the Harkin-Stabenow amendment, and most US lawyers have reason to believe that it violates important aspects of the World Trade Organization rules, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Car manufacturing and dealing companies are fearful about the effects of this move on the US economy. With the new amendment, there’s a big possibility that car sales will drop drastically this year. The US happens to hold a big chunk of the world’s car manufacturing industry.

The other side of the coin

On the plus side, a lot of environmentalists and households are excited about the immediate effect of this amendment. Most people refuse to hand-over their 10-year-old faithful for newer, cleaner models simply because they can’t afford to pay for a new car.

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A recent study by JATO Dynamics showed that average U.S. market cars release 85% more carbon dioxide (CO2) and incinerate twice as much fuel compared to Japanese and European market cars. The study also proved that Japanese and European vehicles are fast becoming environment-friendly.

In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, the average emission of CO2 for all new cars in all categories (SUVs included) is 3.26 tons/year (since the beginning of 2008) based on 12,000 miles/year. While in Japan, the average emission of CO2 is 3.10 tons/year. In the U.S., the average CO2 emission for new cars is a surprising 5.77 tons/year.

When it comes to consumption of fuel, the study found that cars, minivans, and SUVs in the U.S. market consume 10.6 lt/100 km. While European cars consume 5.83 lt/ 100km and Japanese cars consume only 5.79 lt/100km.

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