Jason Godsil, founder and CEO of Godsil Motorcars, is building a new car that will run on natural gas; he’s in the design and prototyping stage. Joel Feder, of MotorAuthority, asked this question and got an answer that should be embarrassing to the Obama administration and its predecessors.

What’s the largest unforeseen issue you’ve encountered?

Crash tests and EPA certifications will need to be done but the level that will be required for a fully certified vehicle was an eye opener. … Do you want to use a custom headlight that isn’t used currently? Sure, we can look at that for $300,000. Do you want to have multiple options for seat belt colors? Sure, that will be $30,000 for the test of each color. It’s crazy! That is why other countries get some car models that are never for sale here in America.

Indeed.

There was this little tidbit in that conversation, too [emphasis added].

When do you realistically think the first production car will hit the street?

The ideal timeline is that we could debut a prototype, using the prototype engine we are working on now, in about eight-to-ten months after we finalize with our investment partners. With the development and testing of the powertrain and all the certifications that will be needed, we envision a production car hitting the streets about three-to-four years later.

This is just…amazing.