Unlike Donald Trump with his $2 million Cadillac limo named 'The Beast', Jacinda Ardern has opted for a fully-electric Hyundai Ioniq to take care of her daily driving duties for the past few years.
But the recently re-elected Labour leading will soon be jumping out of her Korean wheels and swapping them for some German ones in the form of Audi's fully-electric e-tron SUV.
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According to motoringnz.com, a total of three e-tron 55s will join the government fleet, which are priced from $150,500 each. This fleet of Audis will reportedly replace the current diesel-powered BMW ministerial vehicles used.
Alongside this switch, it sounds like there is going to be more Audi representation across the government fleet, with the BMW fleet potentially being phased out as a whole by these electric Audi models.
Back in 2017, Labour and National first pledged to make the switch from internal combustion to electric power for a portion of the government fleet.
At the same time, Labour pledged to make its vehicle fleet completely emissions-free “where practicable” by 2025/26. Just 108 out of 15,000 cars were switched by the time this year's election rolled around, leading to widespread criticism.
“The Government’s quiet back down on electrifying its vehicle fleet is surprising and incredibly disappointing,” Greenpeace campaigner Amanda Larsson told Newsroom in 2019. “This is a climate emergency and the Government should be leading by example to cut our dependence on the dirty fuels driving this crisis.
Given that Jacinda's current personal car is a Hyundai Ioniq EV, she should have no trouble adjusting to her new ministerial wheels.