How kms on the BMW 7's? Didn't they update them a few years ago?
Does Audi do an armoured E-tron? with a back up generator?
s_nz,
Oct 26, 11:47pm
This is basically a trial. Three Audi e trons added to the crown car fleet of just over 30 vehicles.
Will be interesting to see how they go. The Audi e-tron is not offered in long wheelbase, so I would expect the back seat to be somewhat more cramped than in the BMW's. Sadly there doesn't seem to be pure electric long wheel base vehicle on the market for limousine duty.
I have heard from an Audi e-tron owner that previously owned an Audi A8 (BMW 7 series competitor), that the e-tron outperforms the A8 in limousine appropriate qualities like smoothness and quietness.
Contract for the last round of the BMW 7 series was signed in 2016. Should note that that order did not include any armored vehicles. There are only 2 armored vehicles in the crown fleet and they where from the contract before the 2016 one.
Hopefully for the sake of taxpayer $$ we can stretch the duty of the two armored cars out for another 4 or so years. I imagine they don't see a lot of use, only needed to be used when high profile foreign dignitaries visit, or if there is a specific threat or high risk event that an NZ based crown car user is exposed to. Armored cars are extremely expensive, and wouldn't have much resale value in NZ.
Audi does not offer the e-tron with a back up generator.
I imagine the tender to update the (non armored) crown car fleet will be offered up soon.
Will be interesting to see if they replace the whole non-armored fleet will pure electric vehicles, call for a mix of diesel & electric vehicles, or only replace say 2/3 the fleet and retain say 1/3 of the current fleet of BMW's for the times when long range travel is called for (I imagine long range travel with VIP's on board is fairly rare as VIP's tend to fly where possible).
Latter would be the best look politically to get some more use out of the existing crown cars.
Financially is is widely understood that government gets a massive discount off list for its crown cars (great marketing for whatever brand as they get a lot of shots of important people getting in and out of them on TV). Depending on the size of the discount it could be better financially to turn the fleet over more quickly (like the police does).
tamarillo,
Oct 31, 3:58pm
Great info, thanks
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