Should police cruisers be electric vehicles?

Is it time for police cruisers to ditch the internal combustion engine? Chief Paul Nikas thinks so — check out his eye-catching new cruiser for the Ipswich Police Department in Massachusetts. Yes, that's an all-electric Tesla Model Y. It turns out the Ipswich PD was able to make this environmentally-friendly decision due to a couple of local grants dedicated to the adoption of electric vehicles.  

Above: Tesla Model Y customized police cruiser vehicle (Source: Fleet Auto Supply / Instagram).

For the purchase of this specific Tesla Model Y, Ipswich PD received a $10,000 grant from the Ipswich Electric Light Department (ELD) and a grant of $4,290 from the Green Community Program — these grants total a whopping $14,290.

Ipswich local news reported that the town estimates an 87% decrease in CO₂ emissions per vehicle once switched from an internal combustion engine to and EV (like this Tesla). The Town of Ipswich also expects to save $13,000 in fuel and maintenance costs over the period of 10 years.

The Town of Ipswich, MA has also replaced other retired vehicles with electric solutions in order to reduce the town’s carbon footprint. In addition to cost savings, Ipswich, MA also expects the following benefits by transitioning to electric vehicles and finding green solutions moving forward:

• The ELD has replaced five late-model vehicles with electric vehicles: an electric Hyster forklift for the department garage; Chevrolet Bolts for use by the department engineer, town conservation agent, and town building and health departments; and a Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid vehicle for the ELD manager. ELD estimates the electric vehicles have reduced operating and maintenance costs by several thousand dollars and cut gasoline usage by about 1,000 gallons.

• The town has installed electric vehicle charging stations at the parking lots on Elm Street and Hammatt Street, the town hall, and the utilities department. More charging stations are planned as funding opportunities become available.

• In February 2020, the state certified the town as a “Green Community” with the goal of reducing municipal energy use by 20 percent within five years.

• The select board and the school committee recently adopted a resolution developed by the town’s climate resiliency committee, which commits to eliminating municipal use of fossil fuels by 2040.

Police departments around the globe are adopting electric vehicles (often Teslas) to replace their gas-powered cruisers. Below is another example in California of Seaside Police changing to Tesla Model Y police crusiers recently. And back in 2019, Bargersville, IN PD bought a Tesla Model 3 to replace a Dodge Charger. According to the department’s estimates, this decision will save them $20,628 over the period of six years.

Above: Seaside Police Department in California also recently upgraded their old police cars to Tesla Model Y vehicles (YouTube: KION Central Coast News)

It's encouraging to see Police Departments making the switch to EVs. It's likely we'll see more clean, green solutions implemented over the next decade or so. Is there another side benefit of having these new EVs be Teslas? For sure. Bad guys will need really fast get-away cars in order to outrun these cars.

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Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published on Tesla Oracle. Source: Ipswich Local News.