Matt Kean, the energy and environment minister in the NSW state Coalition government, has a new government car: A white Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle that makes Kean the first state or federal politician in Australia to sign up a Tesla as a government car.
Kean, the Liberal MP for Hornsby, reveals the recent purchase in an interview in the latest episode of RenewEconomy’s Energy Insiders podcast, saying the lease had expired on his Toyota Kluger, and the Tesla seemed to be an obvious replacement, delivering cost savings to the government as well as good environmental outcomes.
And he loves to drive it!
“I’ve recently got the first ministerial EV anywhere in the country, not because of some attempt at virtue signalling, but because it’s a great car to drive, it’s the best car I’ve ever driven to be honest,” Kean told the Energy Insiders podcast.
“And guess what! It’s damn cheap? It’s fun? I’m told that it goes very fast. Not that I would know yet, but it is a great car to drive.”
Kean’s Model 3 is driven by a government fleet driver during the week, presumably to allow the minister to sit in the back seat and make all those important calls to the Premier, MPs, media and others. But Kean does get to take it home on the weekend.
“The running costs are virtually zero,” Kean says. “I’ve got a charger here at Parliament House, so we charge it up pretty quickly.
“I am the member for Hornsby in Sydney’s northern suburbs, so it’s about 40kms from the CBD. I think we can make three or four return trips on a single charge. So it’s great value for money. It’s good fun to drive. And I highly recommend that your listeners go and do a test drive.”
The minister’s Model 3 is a standard range plus version, rather than a performance model, which has even faster acceleration and longer range.
NSW government rules allow ministers and members to choose their own leased vehicle – but one of the parameters is that it must sit under the luxury car tax thresh-hold, currently $68,740 for petrol and diesel cars and $77,565 for electric vehicles.
The Model 3 SR Plus comes in at $73,900 before on-road costs. But the performance version costs $97,425 before on roads, and so is captured by LCT and out of an MPs range, at least for the government cars.
To read the full story on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle dedicated news site The Driven click here…
