First all-electric police car takes to the streets

C'mon, fess up -- you'd be a lot less intimidated by a whisper quiet, all-electric squad car than one with a roaring V8, but it's hard to argue the fuel savings that would accrue if an entire precinct resorted to using the former. Such a car has now been loosed by the Connellsville Police Department, which had its combustion engine removed and replaced by a "pure-electric" alternative. The modified Chevy Impala will reportedly cruise for eight hours on a two-hour charge from a 240-volt outlet, but can't chase down baddies in heavy rain for fear of water "destroying its electrical circuits." Furthermore, Coherent Systems International (the car's converter) will be monitoring its effectiveness over the next two years as it aims to "work with other state agencies" and create more alternatively-fueled automobiles for public service.

[Via Wired]
Read - Connellsville plugs in police car
Read - All-electric squad car makes quiet debut

[Kramer @ Aug 24th 2007 8:35AM]

What country?

[ashton @ Aug 24th 2007 8:39AM]

Yank-ville of course

[Cellenin @ Aug 24th 2007 8:40AM]

"but can't chase down baddies in heavy rain for fear of water "destroying its electrical circuits."


This alone is reason not to purchase it! Sigh....This whole eco crap is beyond logical reasoning. This car is a waste of tax payer money.

[chris @ Aug 24th 2007 8:53AM]

and to get away from a ticket just throw a water bottle at the hood of the cop!

[coplice @ Aug 24th 2007 9:04AM]

what do you mean a waste?
you think every cops race at 160mph behind some bad guy?
most police will never pursuit
you dont need a big engine to drive in residential streets or to go to some hosue to file a report, you think being a cops is all about pursuit?

[Darwin @ Aug 24th 2007 9:44AM]

That's right, because we all know that investing in Mustangs for pursuit cars is a better idea.

And since half the people here are on the kick of assuming that this electric vehicle is used to replace all gas vehicles, let's throw in bicycles, while we're at it, then count those Mustangs as regular patrol cars.

Great thinking, people.

[johnzilla @ Aug 24th 2007 11:19AM]

@coplice:

What you don't seem to get is that a MAJOR part of law enforcement is being prepared and being able to react with a decisive, proportionate response.

Yes, you are right...you don't need a big V8 to drive down a residential street or to go to a house to take a report. But consider this: what if, while gently rolling electrically down that residential street, a call comes in? "Officer down, shots fired, bank robbery in progress, all units respond". And you look down at your trusty "charge-o-meter" and you realize you just don't have the "juice" to help out?

But hey, you'll still be able to coast over to that house to write a report, won't you?

Also, don't forget that many cop cars have upgraded electrical systems to drive additional lights, radios, laptops, etc. Does this company's estimate of a charge include driving all of the electrical accessories in addition to the wheels?

[nerfer @ Aug 24th 2007 5:25PM]

The full quote "The cruiser cannot operate in heavy rain because standing water could destroy its electrical circuits. Light rain and snow are not an issue."
I'm not sure why you couldn't shield it from water being sprayed upwards by the tires, unless by standing water they mean going thru water up to your batteries? Perhaps this is due to it being a prototype.

There are definitely places for electric vehicles - postal delivery, UPS trucks, etc. For the police, I think a hybrid would be better. Still can sit in idle with the engine off when needed, and get the instant electric-power boost when you need to go. Obviously the Prius doesn't handle the terrain a police cruiser needs to cover (or tuned for heavy acceleration), but there are more options now, like the Ford Explorer. Isn't there a Malibu hybrid now or coming soon? I would think the police would be all over those options.

[JuggleNuts @ Aug 24th 2007 8:41AM]

*installs backwards pointing EMP generator in trunk*

[Nelson @ Aug 24th 2007 8:48AM]

*because that doesn't work against cars now...?*

[JuggleNuts @ Aug 24th 2007 8:51AM]

Oh, it does :) trust me...

[hickhamt @ Aug 24th 2007 8:54AM]

HA!!!! LMAO!!! that's too funny!!

[Randy @ Aug 24th 2007 10:24AM]

Uhh, Can EMP be focused and directed? I'm not sure and I'm willing to bet no, unless someone with a Physics or Electrical Engineering background can prove to me otherwise. As soon as you activate said generator (assuming you had one small enough to mount in the trunk of a car) Everything in the immediate radius will shutdown, Including YOUR car unless it's specially shielded.

[Justin @ Aug 24th 2007 11:01AM]

@ Randy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-energy_radio-frequency_weapons

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 24th 2007 8:40AM]

Then only the outlaws will have internal combustion!

[Rik @ Aug 24th 2007 8:44AM]

Off course sneaking around almost silently in this police car is an advantage :-D

[Rik @ Aug 24th 2007 8:47AM]

EMP damages circuitry, not the heavy coils found in an electric engine... a modern ICE car isn't going to protect against this any better (the old stuff off-course will).

[macona @ Aug 24th 2007 1:12PM]

There is a hack of a lot more electronics in the car than that coil of wire in the motor. There is the cars computer, motor controller, and motor. Even the motor itself has electronics in the form of temp sensors and hall effect devices for commutation. Maybe even encoders. Each of these would be very sensitive to an EMP if nor more so than components in a regular car.

In fact those massive windings in the motor may act as a nice antenna channeling that emp right into the drive electronics.

[Doug @ Aug 24th 2007 9:12AM]

First high-speed chase with lights and siren...battery will choke inside if 2 miles.

A waste of taxpayer money, indeed.

[Twitchy @ Aug 24th 2007 9:22AM]

Silent electrical squad car - does anyone else see parallels to the U-Boot? Run silent, run deep!

[Nicholas @ Aug 24th 2007 9:43AM]

Did anyone else think the car said "Corruptsville" before taking a closer look? I read the article after looking at the picture...

[hemmy @ Aug 24th 2007 9:48AM]

Breaker, breaker for the Bandit.
Come on back, breaker.
You got trouble comin'. Big, QUIET, trouble.
Well, what's your handle son and what's your 20?
My handle is Smokey Bear and I'm tail grabbin' your ass in an eeeee-lectric right now!

[ebsen @ Aug 24th 2007 10:49AM]

Wow I am exited about this I live outside of Connellsville. Not many high speed chases around here if there is a high speed chases it is done by the PA state cops. The car would most likely be used to cruise the small city for minor traffic violations, drug busts, and getting the officer to the scene of a crime. Also according to the Tribe the car was donated to the city. Although I will admit the city(mainly the mayor)does do a lot of wasting the taxpayer money on useless junk.

[Don @ Aug 25th 2007 3:01PM]

I live in Connellsville and it suprised me to see this on the internet before I read it in the newspaper =). Mayor Reed was a better teacher than she is a mayor. Electricity production is done mostly with fossil fuels in Connellsville to those who want to know, but that is still much more efficient than being done in the automobile. I'll have to keep my eyes (and ears) open next time I see a police cruiser to see if I can recognize it.

[nd @ Aug 24th 2007 11:03AM]

"According to the developers, the all-electric vehicle costs approximately 35-cents a day to maintain while a gas fueled police car costs more than $3.50 per day to maintain."

"Parts alone were around $75,000"

I'm all for the electric vehicles, but I hate articles that are so skewed as this. It IS NOT a cost saver to own a vehicle like this! You have a $30,000 car, $75,000 worth of parts, and I'm sure an additional $50,000-60,000 of labor and police lights, etc. So you have a $150,000 car that needs large amount of electricity to run. Last I checked, electricity wasn't free, and used up natural resources to produce.

And a car with 250,000 miles and 25 mpg at $3/gallon will only have used $30,000 worth of gas in it's lifetime.

I really want to see alternative fuel vehicles, but I think we're barkin up the wrong tree...

[nerfer @ Aug 24th 2007 5:24PM]

Some points: Your cost for labor is obviously a wild guess, this is mentioned several times it is a prototype, ie. one-of-a-kind. You hand-build something, you won't get volume discounts. They didn't mention what they could sell the engine, radiator, muffler, etc. for. As for the cost of electricity, it's in the part you quoted: 35 cents/day.

[nd @ Aug 24th 2007 5:57PM]

yes but....

My point is still that no one seems to have any clue how to do the electric thing for a decent amount of money. instead they remain fairly tale land vehicles that the automakers pour money into because the government says that they have to...

And the $.35/day is a maintanence cost, not electricity...

[Walt_Mink @ Aug 24th 2007 11:04AM]

I think this is great, but it seems to me that an electric car that can't be driven in the rain is just a poorly built electric car. I mean, just how hard is it to keep water out of the important parts? Hybrid cars run on battery power in the rain all the time.

[Samsam @ Aug 24th 2007 11:07AM]

Is anyone else bothered by the fact that these electric cars don't really "save" fuel at all? Unless the city they are using them in using some kind of clean power (nuclear, wind, hydro power) the fuel is simply spent at the coal factory when you plug-in the car.

[Owen V @ Aug 24th 2007 12:49PM]

it has been mentioned time and time again that even with what you pointed out, its still better to be electric than gas.

1. if it does happen to be hydro, nuclear etc. the benefits are obvious, but if its not,

2. it is more efficient and produces a smaller amount of emissions to create the power at the factory rather than at the car

3. even if you dont believe in global warming at all, its good that we are using domestic coal at the power plants and not using foreign oil, foreign oil creates all sorts of problems that we wouldn't have if cars ran off of the domestic supplies of coal (that are actually more plentiful than the world's oil).

[matthew kaake @ Aug 24th 2007 11:43AM]

What bothers me (aside from some other very good comments here) is that when Toyota and GM looked at plug-in EV's, they came back with safe battery systems capable of 12 and 40 miles, respectively. You know they're throwing money at the problem - but this company claims to have 8 hours of run time on a 2 hour charge? I have a hard time seeing that, unless they mean 7 hours waiting on the side of the road for a speeder to drive by, and 1 hour or less of actual motion...

Something's wrong with those numbers.

[OddManOut @ Aug 25th 2007 12:03AM]

"Officer down, shots fired, bank robbery in progress, all units respond". And you look down at your trusty "charge-o-meter" and you realize you just don't have the "juice" to help out?"

You don't think that can happen with gas ?

Seriously, if that happened every cop in the area would respond and helicopters as well. One more or less COULD make the difference...but probably won't. And on the off chance that one particular unit was the only one in the area with an assault rifle and the suspects were wearing kevlar (it's happened) I'm guessing that, as HOLLYWOOD as it might sound, any cop in that sitch smart enough and well trained enough to wield such a weapon would be smart enough to commandeer a gasoline vehicle suitable to the task (it's happened) and do what had to be done.

But other posters have made a good point that cop work isn't all about pursuit. Police really are public servants and they provide many many services that don't involve any kind of violence or mayhem, and don't require mach speed. You think they have to go through police academy (and in many cases graduate college with a BA/BS before hand) to learn how to write tickets and step on the gas ?

Still, I think specialized V8 hybrids might be a better option. But by the same token simply putting a 5 gallon reserve tank in a conventional V8 prowler would give you the same fault tolerance against a fuel crisis in a time of need...though you wouldn't get any environmental benefits...

[yahya @ Nov 16th 2007 10:47PM]

all of you are dum and so is a car that runs on electricaty trust me i now im a police comander. on of my gays had an electricaty car it ran out of juice and he got shot.