UK Spends $2 Million on Electric Cop Cars, Discovers They're Useless for Pursuit

westernjournal.com ^ | 12/26/2019 | Jared Harris

[Moonman62]

Here’s the original article that the Western Journal is regurgitating:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7822791/Police-waste-1-5million-electric-cars-useless-catching-criminals.html

[Moonman62]

Range is one of the primary differentiators among electric vehicles. No one thought to check what typical patrols went through before purchasing the vehicles? I find that hard to believe.

...

The article is low on details, but that doesn’t stop it from being posted on FR.

[truth_seeker]

They got hundreds of them, for just $2 million”

[truth_seeker]

They got hundreds of them, for just $2 million”

Range is going up, rapidly with latest models.

[roadcat]

If ONLY we had a way to store a very high-energy density liquid fuel on board and power an engine with that liquid fuel.

Need more range? Jerry cans.

[BobL]

They’re not useless for pursuit - if the bad guy throws a wheel within the first mile, they got ‘em!

[Moonman62]

Why doesn’t anybody include this detail? A gas car would have had the same problem:

According to Bosques, the Tesla had just been returned from the department’s corporation yard for a flat tire fix and hadn’t been charged by the time it was taken out for patrol by Hartman. His shift started at 2 p.m. that day — nine hours before the pursuit began.

“Officers will usually travel 70-90 miles [in an 11-hour shift] so the car is regularly going two shifts without a charge,” said Bosques, adding that the general range of one battery charge is around 200 miles. The department’s general guideline is to start a shift with 50% of a gas tank or charge.

[Moonman62]

See my post #47.

[rktman]

Thats why I posted it. Most of us just comment on the headers anyway. 😁

[Moonman62]

And then there’s this tidbit at the end of the article:

“It’s meeting the expectations that we’ve had for it. It’s handling well,” said Bosques, adding that this could have happened with any car, gas or electric.

“We do run out of gas [on pursuits]. It happens. We’ve also had regular cars get flat tires on a pursuit, or cars that just die on a pursuit,” she continued.

[Vince Ferrer]

But they feel good.

[ronnie raygun]

Someone made money on there stupidity again

[GOPJ]

Greenies aren’t the brightest bulbs in a box...

[RainMan]

I saw that too … $2M / 400 vehicles is $5K per car. For that price, I would buy one.

[Fresh Wind]

“But when you are driving and accelerating at high speeds, there are certain triggers that make the battery go faster,” she added.

Say goodbye to that 300 mile range.

[Zhang Fei]

It’s completely workable, as long as the rules of engagement change, i.e. they’re allowed to launch an RPG at the target vehicle once they get within range.

[nicollo]

Not sure, lol, why you failed to include this “tidbit” from the article:

“But when you are driving and accelerating at high speeds, there are certain triggers that make the battery go faster,” she added.

[Robert A Cook PE]

My math shows 2,000,000 / 400 = 5,000.00 each.

Ridiculous. You cannot even purchase and install police radios for 5,000.00 per car!

[rktman]

Aren’t the battery packs around that?

[wally_bert]

“It’s got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It’s got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It’s a model made before catalytic converters so it’ll run good on regular gas.” - Jake Elwood.