A number of cities across the country are experimenting with electric vehicles, but one has just gone all in with an all EV PD. California’s South Pasadena PD debuted its fleet of 20 police Teslas on July 29. Half are Model 3s designated for detectives and administrators, and half are Model Ys outfitted for patrol work.
It is believed to be the first all-electric police fleet in the country.
The all-EV PD works in part because South Pasadena, neighbor of the more famous Rose Parade city, is fairly compact with just 3.44 square miles of territory. A Model Y with around 280-300 miles of real-world range can patrol for quite without recharging a while in a mostly residential city where 5 miles is a long trip.
As part of the transition, the city installed 34 EV chargers in a city hall parking lot and is planning a solar system with battery storage to provide backup power to the adjacent police and fire department buildings.
Unplugged Performance, a Hawthorne, Calif. Tesla performance tuner with a police vehicle specialty division, worked with South Pasadena police to develop the police Teslas.
The move to an all-electric fleet was made primarily to help reduce emissions – the city is just 9 miles from downtown Los Angeles at the end of the San Gabriel Valley and is plagued by the same unhealthy air as the rest of the region. Police cars spend a lot of time idling and internal combustion vehicles produce their highest levels of greenhouse gas and toxic emissions while idling.
While California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation requires cities and other public agencies to begin transitioning to EVs this year, it exempts police and fire departments. South Pasadena, which began planning the switch years ago, moved ahead in order to serve as an example – and a data source – for other police departments in the state. Fleet management specialist Standard Fleet is supplying the software that enables the department to schedule and monitor EV charging, maintenance, and dispatching.
The regional South Coast Air Quality Management District provided about $500,000 in clean transportation program funding for the EV project, which will eliminate all tailpipe emissions.
A city study also showed that the electric police cars will save the city about $80,000 a year – $4,000 per vehicle – in fuel costs versus the internal combustion police cars previously in use. The study didn’t provide figures but estimated that with additional savings from maintenance (EVs don’t need oil changes or air filters, and typically require fewer brake jobs) the all-electric police fleet will cost about half as much per mile to operate.
In all, the net expense to the city is $1.85 million – the cost of the EV chargers and of leasing the vehicles from Enterprise Fleet Management. More than $1 million in funding and infrastructure work came from the South Coast air district. Southern California Edison and the local city and county governments-operated Clean Power Alliance, which is providing the solar and battery storage backup power system.
“We will have a 21st Century police force that is safe, clean and saves taxpayer dollars,” said South Pasadena Mayor Evelyn Zniemer.