Electric cars are gradually adopted by more and more police fleets due to a variety of reasons, including the very important one of economics.

Earlier this week, Mayor David Mitchell shares info that the Bridgewater Police Service in Nova Scotia, Canada was approved to buy two new vehicles, including a Tesla Model 3 - the first all-electric car in the fleet.

According to CKBW's report, the vehicle is expected to initially cost around $15,000 more than a conventional counterpart. However, it should bring annual savings of around $5,000.

“We looked at communities with similar climates to ours that have made the switch to EV patrol cars and they report annual savings of around $5,000 in addition to EVs lasting a few years longer than their gas counterparts,”

Over the course of five years, the savings should total $25,000, which would be $10,000 more than the initial cost difference. Because the EV is expected to also stay in the fleet longer than the usual five years, the savings might be even higher.

If the economic analysis is correct, the decision to go electric appears to be reasonable, especially since there are other advantages of EVs, including stealth operation, no idling, no emissions, very good acceleration and more.

Nonetheless, for this year, the Bridgewater Police Service is also buying a conventional car, which means that it's still waiting for a full switch to EVs.

 
 

The Tesla cars have to be retrofitted with special equipment used by the police by third-party companies, as Tesla does not sell police cars directly.

Interestingly, we saw some special Tesla cars at the Fremont factory in some of the recent flyover videos. For example, in December, there was a Tesla Model Y with a siren tested at the factory track (13:51). At 18:37 and 26:19, there is also a special white Tesla Model X, marked as "Security."

Among the fleets that has Tesla is the Fremont Police Department:

 

Tesla EVs are adapted for the purpose also in Europe. Here is a quite interesting view of a special vehicle in action in the UK:

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