Taiwan's Office of the President will lead by example in its effort to reduce carbon emissions by buying pure electric vehicles from Tesla. Having won the latest tender to provide electric vehicles to the government, the company will send two of its Model 3 cars to the President. The Office of the President is the third government agency in Taiwan to buy Tesla's electric vehicles, after the Ministry of National Defense and Executive Yuan.
According to an announcement from the Office of the President, during the opening of the tender on May 28 for "The Office of the President's electric vehicle procurement project for 2021," only Tesla tendered. The final winning tender amount was NTD 3.39 million.
In Taiwan, a Model 3 Standard Range Plus is priced at NTD 1.609 million. This would leave an extra NTD 200 thousand from the final tender amount, after the amount of the two Tesla cars are deducted. The additional NTD 200 thousand might be used for the charging equipment mentioned in the bidding project or on other optional items.
▲The Office of the President's electric vehicle procurement project for 2021 (Source: Government e-Procurement System)
Many people are probably wondering about whether President Tsai will ride in a Model 3 for an outing in the future. As much as people would like to see that, the chances of that happening are probably very low. At most, it is believed that the President will only ride in the Tesla car for a short distance to satisfy her curiosity of electric vehicles. Although the Tesla Model 3 has proved to be a great car for its anti-collision feature in the Euro NCAP crash test, it probably won't be enough to protect a country's top leader.
There is one more interesting detail about the bidding project that is worth mentioning. Although it is the Office of the President that ordered the cars, it will still have to wait for them like everyone else, because the contract completion date is actually scheduled to be November 24, 2021. This date implies that the chips needed for the cars are in short supply.
As a Tesla car's body is usually equipped with many cameras and sensors, for national security reasons, the parking space of the President's Office will probably need to be chosen carefully, so that classified images are not accidentally taken by the Tesla car.
In the end, the Taiwanese President will probably not ride in any of the 2 Tesla cars that were ordered; however, if the other officials from the government were to begin using electric cars to personally experience the advantages and disadvantages of EVs, then in the future, when making policies about reducing carbon emission for Taiwan, these officers might be able to offer helpful advices to the public.
(Photo credit: Tesla)