Tesla Motors, the electric high-end sports car maker brought to you by SpaceX rocket man, Elon Musk, is sold out for one year. They are calling their August 2008 deliveries still the 2008 model year Roadster, but they have customers who have put $30,000 down instead of the usual $50,000 for the $100,000 car for deliveries through 4Q08. That’s somewhere between 25% and 50% of their academic year 08-09 production.

I wanted to buy one except for
1) “No, we don’t take trade-ins at this time”
2) No financing on the down payment until delivery (although it is refundable until about 3 months before delivery)
3) The Lotus Elise frame won’t really accommodate someone who’s 6’1″ without taking off the roof to get through the door. Maybe if I lose a second 20 pounds, I’ll try again.

I look forward to their next offering and I hope it has a slightly bigger cockpit. Other than to support Elon Musk, I want one because they are novel. That I’ll be burning cheap coal as opposed to expensive oil is a nice way to subsidize my taste for novelty.

The reduced dependence on foreign oil stuff is pretty weak. For the $80,000 more that it costs to buy a Tesla, one can put 60 years worth of gasoline ($2.88*464 gallons per year) into the strategic petroleum reserve. But whatever they use to sell these babies so I can buy one is fair game.