Photo: WBOC
Tesla Model Y joins the fleet of the Cambridge, Maryland Police Department. Police departments are increasingly choosing electric vehicles as cruisers for their daily patrols, which should save thousands of taxpayer dollars.
The police car of the future is already patrolling the streets of Cambridge. The city's police department unveiled the Tesla Model Y police cruiser. Cambridge Police Chief Mark Lewis says the electric car will save tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in charging and maintenance costs. "It's a leased vehicle, so it should save the city probably about $30,000 over that five-year lease just on maintenance and fuel," he said, according to the WBOC.
Besides the obvious monetary savings, Model Y has other obvious benefits. With performance typical of police vehicles, the car is an electric vehicle and therefore does not pollute the environment during its operation. The Tesla electric cars are the ideal vehicles for the police.
Buying the car initially drew backlash from Cambridge residents who thought it was an unnecessarily expensive waste. In response to this, city commissioners quickly responded and dispelled doubts, showing that the Tesla Model Y had a similar price to the Ford Explorer.
The chief says in addition to saving money, the new technology will also benefit the officer driving the car. "Sargent Patton—he's our community policing officer—he will take it and use it for all of his events and really there's no difference between this vehicle and our Ford Explorers, they're the same. Just one is electric and one is a gas engine," Lewis said.
Tela Model Y is part of a pilot program and if testing is successful, more Tesla vehicles will join the Cambridge Police fleet.
© 2021, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
_____________________________
We appreciate your readership! Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
