Federal member for Kennedy Bob Katter has become the latest Queenslander to be blown away by the incredible acceleration of the Tesla Model 3 Performance.
Taking the front passenger seat of the electric car next to local environmental activist and Tesla owner Daniel Bleakley, Katter responded not once, but three times, with a solid “yee-ha!” as the vehicle accelerated from a standing stop to 100km/hr in about 3.3 seconds.
“This is Bob Katter. He’s been a member of the Australian parliament for almost 30 years. He’s passionate about bringing manufacturing back to Australia,” said Bleakley in a post of the video on Twitter.
The video is the 16th in a “Miners in Teslas” YouTube series kicked off by Bleakley, who first got the idea to put some rough diamonds in the front seat of his Tesla when visiting his hometown in Central Queensland in April.
Reactions to the performance Model 3’s instant torque and acceleration have been “priceless”, and Katter’s it seems is no less so.
“It’s so thrilling,” said Katter in the video posted on Friday evening.
Here’s Bob Katter in a @tesla in Charters Towers.
Happy Friday. pic.twitter.com/cyio8fShjr
— Daniel Bleakley (@DanielBleakley) May 21, 2021
Wait until he learns that the upcoming and “very intense” Tesla Roadster will do the sprint to 100km/hr in a third of that time (albeit assisted by mini SpaceX rocket thrusters).
But there’s more to getting regional Queenslanders – and those who represent them – in the front seat of electric cars than just “walking the torque”, so to speak.
Aside from breaking down the myths that electric cars cannot compete against internal combustion vehicles (or that they are not suitable for tradespeople, as underlined on Friday by Ford’s F-150 Lightning launch), there is the argument of the potential for economic growth that exists in nurturing battery manufacturing in Queensland.
“Did you talk to him about how all the minerals in the battery are in the ground here in Aus,” said Twitterer Phillip Riess.
“We need the conversation to switch from losing coal mining jobs to gaining rare earth mining jobs. Then we can start talking about doing the “value add” here and exporting end products.”
“I certainly did. 9 out of 10 minerals in these batteries are found in Australia. Huge opportunity for us,” said Bleakley.
I certainly did. 9 out of 10 minerals in these batteries are found in Australia.
Huge opportunity for us.
— Daniel Bleakley (@DanielBleakley) May 21, 2021
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.