Electric cars are trying to become the future of transportation and the LAPD is buying into that idea by adding 100 of them to their motor pool. The additional LAPD electric cars increase the department’s total to 168 in service electric vehicles. This makes the LAPD electric car motor pool the largest among U.S. police departments. But Los Angeles isn’t stopping with the police force, the mayor intends to push the city’s motor pool to electric over the next several years. This includes all manor of municipal vehicles that the city is operating. The mayor points to the fact that operating EV’s is cheaper and better for the environment.
“Every sector should be migrating to green technology — and these new EVs show how local government can lead,” said Mayor Garcetti. “Our sustainability plan pushes L.A. to speed adoption of greener practices and technologies, which also save money and resources. If LAPD can do it, so can everyone else.”
“Electric vehicle procurement made sense for taxpayers and for the environment,” said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. “The charging stations we bought will power many more electric vehicles in the future, for much less than the price of gas. Every dollar we save from lower maintenance will go back into law enforcement to keep our city safe. And while our new electric cars will be used only for non-emergency purposes, we will continue to monitor and test new generations of vehicles for their potential to serve as patrol cars.”
With as many vehicles as operate in the Los Angeles area, the city’s efforts to move to EV’s is a good start. It should make a small dent into the city’s smog issues and help ease some of the pollution bringing a better quality of life for many.
What do you think of the LAPD’s newly acquired EV patrol cars? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
[button link=”http://www.lapdblog.org/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Los Angeles Police Department[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
